What is the declension of nouns? Case in Russian

Not only schoolchildren and students of linguisticdisciplines are wondering what is the declension of nouns. After all, literate speech and spelling are not the whims of teachers and not the privilege of philologists. On the question of what is the declension of nouns in Russian, you can answer in different ways, because this word has several though similar, but still different values. Let's start with a short excursion into etymology.

What is the declension of nouns?

First, we will analyze what kind of origin yterm. The word "declination" is a tracing note from the Latin declinatio, which means "deviation". This is not surprising, because inflection is a kind of anomaly in comparison with the basic form of the noun. However, the category "declination" does not only mean the process of transforming words. This is also a certain type of nouns, similar to vary in the same model. In Russian, there are three main declensions, but there are words that do not belong to any of the categories.

How do nouns change?

We are interested in parts of speech, for rareexcept, they tend in number and in case. With the first criterion, everything is very simple - it shows the number of marked items. The number can be single and multiple. In the first case we are dealing with nouns, which denote only one thing. For example: a garden, hearth. To the plural, there are words pointing to several objects (gardens, foci). There are exceptions.

So, in Russian there is a place for a noun,which have the form of only a single number (the so-called singularia tantum). Example - milk, glory. Similarly, there are nouns that have only a plural form (which are called pluralia tantum). In this case, the following words can be cited as an example: darkness, scissors.

What is the declension of nouns with cases?

Now consider another possible changeinteresting parts of speech. To decline by case - this means to adapt the noun to use it with other words. This category also shows the syntactic role of the declined parts of speech in the sentence. In most cases, declining by case means changing the ending of a word. However, this ability belongs not only to this kind of transformation of nouns.

The term "case" comes from the Latin cadere -fall. Allocate direct and indirect cases. The first of these is a "normal" version of the word. This is certainly a nominative, and in some cases an accusative case. The second is a "deviation" from the norm. This category includes all the remaining variants of the declension of nouns.

What are the cases?

In the Russian case there are 6 possiblevariants of changing nouns for linking them with other words. The first of them is the nominative case. As mentioned above, this is the "correct", natural form of the word, in Latin it is called the nominative. The genitive case, called the genitive, indicates belonging to someone or something, the dative (dative) - the object to which the action is directed. The accusative is similar to the first, nominative, however, has its own peculiarity. It is used after transitive verbs to denote a direct complement. In Latin it is called an accusative. The instrumental case (or instrumentation) most often indicates a method, an instrument of action. In addition, it is used after such verbs: to lead, engage, own. And, finally, the last, prepositional case is a prepositional. He points to the place, time, subject of speech or thought, is used only with prepositions.

We considered all variants of declension in Russianlanguage. Other languages ​​may have differences. So, for example, in English, nouns have only two cases. The first of these, the general one, is the customary way of using words. The second, possessive case, indicates, first, only on animate nouns, which necessarily mean a living being. Secondly, the subject must belong to some thing, a sign or quality. The possessive case is formed with the help of a special ending - "s". In other languages, there are other features.

How to decline nouns by case?

This is easy to do. It is enough to know the so-called case questions, which allow us to identify the Russian cases. The table below contains all the necessary data.

Case in Russian

Case	Your questions	Example	Prepositions
Nominative	Who? what?	rhinoceros, rhinoceroses	---
Genitive	whom? What?	rhinoceros, rhinoceroses	without, about, from, at,
Dative	To whom? What?	rhinoceros, rhinoceroses	by, to
Accusative	whom? what?	rhinoceros, rhinoceroses	through, in, pro, on
Instrumental	by whom? than?	rhinoceros, rhinoceroses	before, behind, under, above
Prepositional	About whom? about what?	about rhinoceros, about rhinoceroses	on, on, about, in

Please note that the information provided is applicableto all nouns of both singular and plural. Almost all words of the part of speech that we are considering tend to lean. But there are exceptions.

What nouns do not bow?

In Russian there are many words thathave a foreign origin (for example, highways, blinds). Some of them do not change either by case or by number. In addition, they belong to the category of so-called indeclinable nouns. The surnames that end in -o, -yh (-ih) also remain unchanged. This category includes complex words (for example, deputy director).

What are declensions of nouns?

As mentioned above, the term we are describingindicates not only the process of change and its path, but also the generalized types of words that have the same modification models. In Russian there are three declensions of nouns. To determine to which of them the specific word is attributed, the grammatical gender and the ending in the nominative singular number help. Visually see the current declension and their characteristics can be found in the table below.

Declination in Russian

Declination	Genus	Ending	Examples
The first	male, female	-and I	dad
The second	male, medium	-o, -e, zero	lake, field, elephant
The third	feminine	zero (the word ends in -h)	steppe

Case	1st decline (singular)	2nd decline (singular)	3rd decline (singular)	plural
Nominative	-and I mother, uncle	-o, -e, - lake, field, horse	- steppe	-ы, -и, -а, -я Moms, uncles, lakes, fields, horses, steppes
Genitive	-ы, -и mothers, uncles	-and I lakes, fields, horses	-and steppes	-yes, -ev, -y, - mums, uncles, lakes, fields, horses, steppes
Dative	-и, -е mother, uncle	-y, -yu lake, field, horse	-and steppes	-am, -am mothers, uncles, lakes, fields, horses, steppes
Accusative	-y, -yu mother, uncle	-o, -е, -я lake, field, horse	- steppe	-ы, -и, -а, -я, -ей, - mums, uncles, lakes, fields, horses, steppes
Instrumental	(th), th (th) mother (mother), uncle (uncle)	-oh, -em lake, field, horse	-Yu steppe	-ami, -i mothers, uncles, lakes, fields, horses, steppes
Prepositional	-e, -and mother, uncle	-e, -and lake, field, horse	-and steppes	-ah, -yah mamas, uncles, lakes, fields, horses, steppes

Are there exceptions to the rule?

Not all nouns fall under the description.any type of declination mentioned above. There are 4 exceptions. The first of these is the previously undeclared words considered by us. The second exception is nouns that look like adjectives. And they bow as well as the latter. Such words are also called adjective declension nouns. For example: passerby, bathroom. The third wonder is the nouns that are opposable. Their peculiarity is that in different cases they have endings that are not specific to one of the three types of declension. These include the words: path, burden, seed, udder, time, and others. And finally, the fourth exception is nouns that are inclined as pronouns (a draw).

How do words with the “half” component lean?

Such nouns have their own characteristics. In these words, the component “half” in indirect cases, with the exception of the accusative, changes to “semi-”. The second half, that is, the noun, varies according to the general rules. Difficult words with the “half-” component are not inclined, in which the main part indicates an animated object, for example: half-horse, half-goat.

Now, after reviewing all aspects of the topic inthe smallest details should be summed up. The declension of nouns is a complex linguistic category, which means some specific pattern of transformation of words, as well as the very process of changing them according to cases and numbers. The basic rules for proper and competent declination should be known to children from school. And, of course, not to forget them, becoming adults, even if their profession is not connected with philology.