Russian Instrumental Case: Endings, Uses and Verbs

The Russian instrumental case answers three questions English asks with three different words: with what, with whom and as what. Russian asks all three with one set of endings, and once you see that, the case stops looking like a grab-bag and starts looking like one idea.

It is also, for once, a case with endings you can learn in an afternoon.

One idea, three English words

Russians call it творительный падеж (tvoritelny padezh), the case of the doer or maker, which is a good clue. It marks whatever something is done with or as:

Он откры́л дверь ключом. (On otkryl dver klyuchom.) - He opened the door with a key.

Я говорю́ с ма́мой. (Ya govoryu s mamoy.) - I am talking with Mum.

Мой брат рабо́тает врачо́м. (Moy brat rabotayet vrachom.) - My brother works as a doctor.

The tool, the companion, the role. English says with, with and as, and the first two are not even the same with: one is an instrument, one is company. Russian tells them apart cleanly, as you will see in the mistakes section, and uses the instrumental for both.

The endings

This is one of the tidiest rows in the whole case system.

Two small rules sit behind the -ом/-ем split. After a soft consonant you get -ем, the soft partner of -ом. And after the hushing consonants ж, ш, ч, щ and ц, an unstressed о is written е: муж gives му́жем, but оте́ц, where the ending is stressed, gives отцо́м. If you are unsure, -ом for hard stems and -ем for soft ones will be right most of the time.

The plural is the best news. Every noun, masculine, feminine or neuter, takes -ами or -ями: книгами, друзья́ми. The only exceptions worth knowing are людьми́ (people) and детьми́ (children). It is the same regularity the dative and prepositional plurals have.

Adjectives agree, with -ым (or -им) for masculine and neuter and -ой (or -ей) for feminine: с но́вым друго́м (with a new friend), с хоро́шей подру́гой (with a good friend).

The pronouns

The н- on the third-person forms appears after any preposition, not just с, so it is ме́жду ни́ми (between them) as well. And с becomes со in front of мной to stop three consonants colliding. Пойдём со мной (come with me) is a phrase you will hear in every Russian film ever made.

Use 1: the tool or means

The thing you do something with goes into the instrumental with no preposition at all.

Я пишу́ карандашо́м. (Ya pishu karandashom.) - I am writing in pencil.

Он показа́л руко́й на дверь. - He pointed at the door with his hand.

Means of transport can work the same way: поездом (by train), самолётом (by plane). In everyday speech на по́езде is just as common, but the instrumental is the one to recognise in writing.

Use 2: company, with с

С plus the instrumental means together with.

Я иду́ в кино́ с друго́м. - I am going to the cinema with a friend.

Мы с тобо́й - you and I (literally, we with you)

That second one is worth pausing on. Russian regularly says we with you where English says you and I: Мы с бра́том means my brother and I, not we and my brother. It looks like a mistake and is completely standard.

The same с handles what comes with what: ко́мната с окном is a room with a window, the window belonging to the room rather than being used on it.

Use 3: role, profession and what you become

This is the use that surprises English speakers most. A role or profession goes into the instrumental after быть in the past and future, after стать (to become) and after рабо́тать (to work as).

The present keeps the nominative because there is no быть there to govern anything; the verb vanishes in the present. The moment быть reappears, the instrumental follows it.

Когда́ я был ребёнком, я жил у мо́ря. - When I was a child, I lived by the sea.

Я хочу́ стать врачо́м. - I want to become a doctor.

Э́то бы́ло оши́бкой. - That was a mistake.

The logic is that the instrumental marks a role someone occupies for a time, a hat they wear, rather than what they simply are. You will hear the nominative too, Он был врач, especially in casual speech and for lasting qualities (Он был хоро́ший челове́к is perfectly normal), but for roles and professions learn the instrumental: it is the standard, and what examiners expect.

Use 4: location, after five prepositions

За and под take the instrumental for where something is and the accusative for where it is going, the same location-against-motion split that в and на make with the prepositional. Кни́га под столо́м: the book is under the table. Put it there and it is под стол.

Use 5: time of day, and verbs that insist on it

Four common adverbs are frozen instrumentals of the times of day: у́тром (in the morning), днём (in the daytime), ве́чером (in the evening) and но́чью (at night). Learn them as words; they need no preposition.

У́тром я пью ко́фе. - In the morning I drink coffee.

And a set of verbs simply takes the instrumental as its object. The two you need first are занима́ться (to do, to be busy with) and являться (to be, in formal writing):

Он занимае́тся му́зыкой. - He does music.

Чем ты занима́ешься? - What do you do? (literally, with what are you busy)

Чем ты занима́ешься? is the standard way of asking what someone does, for a living or for fun, and the question word чем is itself the instrumental of что, as the question words article explains.

All five uses in one short passage

Here is the case working in ordinary sentences, the way you will meet it in a story rather than a table:

Мой оте́ц был учи́телем. Ве́чером он сиде́л с ма́мой пе́ред до́мом. Одна́жды он откры́л ста́рую дверь ключом, и мы с бра́том уви́дели ко́мнату.

My father was a teacher. In the evening he used to sit with Mum in front of the house. One day he opened an old door with a key, and my brother and I saw a room.

Six instrumentals in three sentences, doing five different jobs:

Read it again and notice what is missing: not one English with, as or in had to be translated as a separate word, apart from с for company and пе́ред for place. The endings carried it all. That is the whole case, and it is why a learner who has the endings table down can read a passage like this long before they could write one.

Mistakes English speakers make

Adding с to a tool. С means accompaniment, so с ножо́м is not using a knife but with a knife on him, a man carrying one. The tool takes the bare instrumental: ножо́м. This is the single most common instrumental mistake, and it comes straight from English with.

Using the nominative after был. Он был врач is understood, and you will hear natives say it casually, but it is not the standard form. Past and future roles go into the instrumental.

Forgetting the н- on pronouns. С им is wrong; after any preposition it is с ним.

Forgetting со. С мной is hard to say for a reason. It is со мной.

Treating мы с тобо́й as more people. Мы с тобо́й is two people, you and me, not a group plus you.

What to do next

Learn the endings table and the pronoun table, then drill one sentence per use until each feels automatic: ключом, с друго́м, был врачо́м, под столо́м, у́тром. Five phrases carry the whole case. After that, the verbs of motion are the natural next step, since that is where поездом and самолётом come back. The Russian course drills the pronouns on real sentences from chapter one.