Nouns

Question 1

What are the Russian cases and what are the rules?

Answer 1

There are 3 cases (genders): masculine, feminine and neuter.

1. If the ending is a consonant, or “й”, the word is masculine.
2. If the ending is “а” or “я” it is feminine.
3. If the ending is “о” or “е” it is neuter.
4. If the ending is a soft sign “ь” then it is either masculine or feminine.

There are very few exceptions to these rules. But there are five notable exceptions, this occurs mainly because of physical gender. 
Папа - (Daddy, Papa) - Is Masculine
Дядя - (Uncle) - Is Masculine
Дедушка - (Grandfather) - Is Masculine
Мужчина - (Man) - Is Masculine
Кофе - (Coffee) - Is Masculine

Question 2

List each Russian case and its function.

Answer 2

Nominative
The subject.

Accusative
The direct object.

Genitive
Expresses possession, ‘of’.

Dative
Indirect object, ‘to’, ‘for’.

Ablative (instrumental)
‘By’, ‘with’, ‘from’.

Prepositional (locative)
Used with many common prepositions, such as “in”, “on” etc. used to indicate “place where” and is found primarily with the names of places.

Question 3

Outline the masculine gender with word and ending.

Answer 3

Word: дом, Ending: consonant
Word: чай, Ending: -й

Question 4

Outline the feminine gender with word and ending.

Answer 4

Word: картина, Ending: -а
Word: семья, Ending: -я
Word: история, Ending: -ия

Question 5

Outline the neuter gender with word and ending.

Answer 5

Word: письмo, Ending: -o
Word: платье, Ending: -е
Word: внимание, Ending: -ие
Word: время, Ending: -мя

Question 6

Outline all the endings to make plurals.

Answer 6

1. Masculine ending in a hard consonant;
   feminine ending in -a.

Ending for plural: -ы;
-ы, -и

Example: стол - столы
улица - улицы
чашка - чашки

2. any nouns ending in -ь, -й, -я

Ending for plural: -и

Example: двeрь - двери
земля - земли

3. masculine and feminine with the stem ending in -к, -г, -x, -ч, -щ, -ж, -ш,

Ending for plural: -и

Example: ноЖ - ножи
ноГа - ноги

4. neuter ending in -o

Ending for plural: -a

Example: окно - окнa

5. neuter ending in -e

Ending for plural: -я

Example: мoре - моря

Some nouns are always singular. These are nouns that designate substances кислород, медь (oxygen, copper), food products сахар, мука (sugar, flour), a block of objects мебель (furniture), some actions охота (hunting), feelings любовь, здоровье (love, health), sorts of fabric бархат (velvet), medicine аспирин (aspirin), some vegetables and berries картофель, морковь (potato, carrots).

Question 7

What is the rule for the agreement with nouns?

Answer 7

You will have to know the genders and plural forms of nouns because they influence the use of adjectives and pronouns. The basic rule is that Russian adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in gender, number and cases. Take a look at how the adjective красивый (beautiful) changes depending on the gender and number of the noun which it describes (in the Nominative case):

Красивый:

masculine singular: красивый мяч
feminine singular: красивая девушка
neuter singular: красивое море
plural (all genders): красивые мячи, красивые девушки, красивые моря