Russian Cases Chart: All Six, and Why They Are Not Hard

Russian has six cases, and six is the number that makes people put Russian down before they start. It should not be: the endings do the job English does with word order and little words like to and of, and they overlap far more than the tables let on.

What the endings are actually for

English marks a noun's job two ways: by position (the subject comes first) and by little words (to, of, with, by). Russian does most of it with one ending on the noun. Here are the six jobs, one colour per case:

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1. 1Ива́н
2. 2кни́гу
3. 3Ма́ше

Иван даёт книгу Маше: Ivan gives Masha the book. The giver is nominative, the thing given accusative, the person who gets it dative.

Four of the six are done in English with a preposition. You already make these distinctions every day; Russian simply puts them on the end of the word.

That is why Russian word order is free for emphasis: the ending, not the position, says who did what. Both of these mean Mum knows Ivan:

• Ма́ма зна́ет Ивана. - Mum knows Ivan.
• Ивана зна́ет ма́ма. - It's Mum who knows Ivan. (Mum last: she is the news)

Russian also has no word for the or a: кни́га is a book or the book, and context decides.

Start with the pronouns, because you already use them

The fastest way to stop finding cases strange is to notice that English does the same thing, on a handful of words:

• Я зна́ю. - I know. (I am doing it)
• Он меня́ не зна́ет. - He does not know me. (it is being done to me)
• Скажи́ мне. - Tell me. (it is being said to me)

I, me, to me. English changes the word too, and nobody finds that hard, because it is learned as vocabulary rather than as grammar. The Russian pronouns can be learned the same way: Russian personal pronouns has all of them in all six cases.

The endings overlap, so six is not six times the work

Here are three ordinary nouns, one per gender: стол (table), окно́ (window) and кни́га (book). The singular:

And the plural:

Now count forms rather than cells:

• One form, two cases. Кни́ге is dative and prepositional: к кни́ге (towards the book, dative), о кни́ге (about the book, prepositional).
• Things keep the nominative as accusative. Я ви́жу стол. - I see the table. Я ви́жу окно́. - I see the window.
• People and animals copy the genitive in the masculine accusative: Я зна́ю Ивана. - I know Ivan. That is exactly what меня́ was doing above.
• The plural dative, instrumental and prepositional end in -ам, -ами and -ах whatever the gender: столам, окнам, книгам.

Кни́ги is the genitive singular and the nominative plural at once, and окна́ does the same double shift in spelling, though the stress moves: ok-NA, of the window, against OK-na, windows. The genitive plural (столов, окон, книг) is the one genuinely awkward row, in every textbook.

Soft stems run the same pattern with each hard vowel swapped for its soft partner: неде́ля (week) goes неде́лю, неде́ли, неде́ле, неделей, and takes -ям, -ями and -ях in the plural:

• Я жду неде́лю. - I'm waiting a week.

Which prepositions take which case

A Russian preposition decides the case of the noun after it, which makes prepositions the most reliable trigger you have.

Three of these do two jobs, and the case tells you which. В and на take the accusative for where something is going and the prepositional for where it is, the split German makes with its two-way prepositions:

• Кни́га на столе́. - The book is on the table. (where it is)
• Я кладу кни́гу на стол. - I'm putting the book on the table. (where it goes)

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1. 1Он идёт в дом.
2. 2Он в до́ме.

Left, he is on his way: в дом, accusative. Right, he has arrived: в доме, prepositional. Same preposition, the case says which.

За means for with the accusative (спаси́бо за пода́рок) and behind with the instrumental: за до́мом - behind the house.

Worked examples, one case at a time

The genitive row is the construction you will use most: у меня́ нет plus the genitive is the everyday I have no, and the negative is what forces the genitive. The genitive case covers it.

The order that pays

1. Nominative and accusative, as a pair: the subject-object contrast changes who did what.
2. Prepositional and genitive, in either order: the prepositional only appears after в, на, о and a few more; the genitive appears constantly, above all after нет.
3. Dative and instrumental, at whatever pace suits.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Learn the pronoun forms first: я, меня́, мне.
2. Then the singular table for кни́га, one row a day.
3. Do the drill below. The cases are the tractable part of Russian; verb aspect is the part that takes years.