Nominative Case

Overview and explanation of the nominative case in the Russian language

In this guide, we'll go over everything that we need to know about the nominative case in the Russian language. We'll go over how to form the nominative case and when to use the nominative case.

Nominative case is the form in which all of the words are in the dictionary.

When do we use it?

  1. To express the subject of the sentence. The subject is the person or the thing that performs the action.

    Татьяна не работает. -----> Tatiana doesn’t work.

    (Татьяна is in the Nominative Case, as she is the one who performs the action.)

  2. To express the predicate noun of the sentence.

    Татьяна -----> учительница.

    (Учительница is the noun in the predicate position, therefore is in the Nominative Case.)

What are the forms?

Singular Nouns (cуществительные в единственном числе)

It's from the Nominative Case that you determine the gender. Russian has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter; and within each of them, there are two types of nouns: hard -stem and soft -stem.

masculine feminine neuter
hard soft hard soft hard soft
Zero ending -ь , -й -а -я, -ь -о -е, -ё

стол - hard-stem masculine noun

словарь - soft-stem masculine noun

музей - soft-stem masculine noun

работа - hard-stem feminine noun

Соня - soft-stem feminine noun

окно - hard-stem neuter noun

море - soft-stem neuter noun

Plural Nouns (существительные во множественном числе)

  1. To form the plural form of nouns you need to change the ending.

    masculine feminine neuter
    hard soft hard soft hard soft
    -ы -и -ы -и -а -я

    компьютер (computer) -----> компьютеры

    преподаватель (teacher) -----> преподаватели

    комната (room) -----> комнаты

    тетрадь (exercise-book) -----> тетради

    окно (window) -----> окна

    здание (building) -----> здания

  2. Masculine and feminine gender nouns take the same endings. For feminine nouns you need to remove the singular ending before adding the plural ending.

  3. Neuter nouns with two syllable shift their stress.

    окно́ - о́кна

    письмо́ - пи́сьма

    мо́ре - моря́

  4. The 7 - letter Spelling Rule comes into force here. It says that whenever you need to put Ы after the letters Г, К, Х, Ж, Ш, Ч, Щ , you need to switch Ы to И.

    Книга -----> книги

    Ручка -----> ручки

    Нож -----> ножи

    Exceptions:

    There are a lot of nouns with plural form that does not conform to general rules. Below, we provide the most frequent examples of such nouns.

  5. There is a group of masculine nouns that take the stressed ending -а

    дом (house) дома
    поезд (train) поезда
    город (city) города
    остров (island) острова
    паспорт (passport) паспорта
    лес (forest) леса
    глаз (eye) глаза
    адрес (address) адреса
    счёт (account / bill) счета
    директор (director) директора
    профессор (professor) профессора
    учитель (teacher) учителя
    берег (shore, river bank) берега

  6. Many nouns are complete irregulars.

    ребёнок (child) дети
    человек (man, person) люди
    друг (friend) друзья
    брат (brother) братья
    стул (chair) стулья
    муж (husband) мужья
    сын (son) сыновья
    дерево (tree) деревья
    яблоко (apple) яблоки

  7. Certain nouns ending in syllables -ОК, -ЕК, -ЕЦ, -ЕНЬ, and others containing the vowels О or Е undergo a change in their stems. This is called a fleeting vowel.

    кошелёк (wallet) кошельки
    день (day) дни
    рынок (market) рынки
    церковь (church) церкви
    дворец (palace) дворцы
    лев (lion) львы
    лёд (ice) льды

  8. There are nouns whose singularlity and plurality do not change.

    only singular only plural
    • молоко (milk)
    • одежда (clothing)
    • время (time)
    • обувь (shoes)
    • мебель (furniture)
    • вода (water)
    • печенье (cookies)
    • посуда (dishes)
    • деньги (money)
    • джинсы (jeans)
    • часы (watch)
    • очки (glasses)
    • брюки (pants)

Personal Nouns (личные местоимения)

singular plural
I я We мы
You (singular, informal) ты You (plural formal вы
he он they они
she она
it оно

In Russian, when substituting a noun with a pronoun, you have to use a personal pronoun according to the gender or number regardless if the noun is animate or inanimate. For example, if you want to use a pronoun when referring to the book (книга), you must use pronoun она. Компьютер is masculine, therefore use он; письмо is neuter, thus use оно.

Где телефон? - Вот он. Where is the phone? - Here it is.
Где окно? - Вот оно. Where is the window? - Here it is.
Где Москва? - Вот она. Where is Moscow? - Here it is.

Possessive Pronouns (притяжательные местоимения)

In Russian, Possessive Pronouns agree in gender, number, and case with the nouns they modify. Pronouns ЕГО (his), ЕЁ (her), ИХ (their) have only one form.

Notice that the Interrogative Pronoun ЧЕЙ?(whose?) also agrees in gender and number.

Whose? My Your (singular informal) Our Your (Plural formal) His Her Their
чей? мой твой наш ваш его её их
чья? моя твоя наша ваша
чьё? моё твоё наше ваше
чьи? мои твои наши ваши

Это мой карандаш.

Это твоя девушка.

Это наши дети.

Это ваше пианино.

Это его друзья.

Это её подруга

Это их здание.

Adjectives (прилагательные)

In Russian, adjectives agree with the noun they modify in gender, number, and case.

There are two categories of adjectives, hard and soft. Only nouns ending in -НИЙ belong to the soft category. The rest of the nouns are in the hard category.

Within the hard category there are two types of adjectives: stressed-stem and stressed ending adjectives.

Hard Adjectives

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
stressed stem
  • новый
  • русский
  • хороший
  • горячий
  • новая
  • русская
  • хорошая
  • горячая
  • новое
  • русское
  • хорошее
  • горячее
  • новые
  • русские
  • хорошие
  • горячие
stressed ending
  • большой
  • дорогой
  • большая
  • дорогая
  • большое
  • дорогое
  • большие
  • дорогие

  1. It’s only for the masculine nouns that the endings are different for stressed-ending adjectives. The stress on the ending remains through all declensions.

  2. Notice that there are some changes in the endings that take place. Why is хорошее different from русское? And why is русский different from новый? These changes are predictable if you are familiar with the 7 Letter Spelling Rule and the 5 Letter Spelling Rule. It is good to know them, as they are applied in many grammatical situation, reduce the number of rules for declension in the future, and prevent many mistakes.

7 Letter Spelling Rule

The 7 Letter Spelling Rule is a rule that tells that whenever there is a grammatical need to put Ы after Г, К, Х, Ж, Ш, Ч, Щ, you have to put И instead.

Русский, русская, русское, русские. - this is a hard category adjective, but the 7- Letter Spelling Rule affected its ending in masculine and plural forms.

5 Letter Spelling Rule

The 5 Letter Spelling Rule is a rule that tells that whenever there is a grammatical need to put О after Ж, Ш , Ч , Щ, and Ц in unstressed position, you have to put Е instead.

Хоро́ший, хоро́шая, хоро́шее, хоро́шие is a hard category adjective, but the 5 Letter Spelling Rule affected its ending in the neuter form, as the stress falls on the second syllable. Note, that if the ending is stressed, this rule doesn’t apply (большо́й).

Soft Adjectives

Soft adjectives are those that end in -НИЙ. It’s a much smaller group than the "hard adjectives" group. No need to memorize them all at once, but mark these for yourself when learning new adjectives.

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Soft Adjectives
  • синий
  • летний
  • домашний
  • синяя
  • летняя
  • домашняя
  • синее
  • летнее
  • домашнее
  • синие
  • летние
  • домашние
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