In a very simple clause such as "I am an actor," would 'actor' be in the accusative or does the accusative require an actual verb to be present?
Also, if it is in the accusative, could one write "Мы — актёров"?
Russian Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Russian language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this communityIn a very simple clause such as "I am an actor," would 'actor' be in the accusative or does the accusative require an actual verb to be present?
Also, if it is in the accusative, could one write "Мы — актёров"?
Apart from following a preposition that governs the Accusative case (like в, на, за, etc. when they mean direction), the Accusative case nouns can only be used as direct objects to a transitive verb. Since "to be", быть, is not a transitive verb, it cannot have any direct objects, nothing in the Accusative case can follow it, in the Present tense the verb "to be", быть, is omitted in Russian, and the predicate is in the Nominative case. On the other hand, if "to be", быть, is used in the Past or Future tense, what follows it must be in the Instrumental case, that is why:
Present: Я – актёр. (Nominative) - 'I am an actor.'
Past: Я был актёром. (Instrumental) - 'I was an actor.'
Future: Я буду актёром. (Instrumental) - 'I will be an actor.'
In "Я - актёр." sentense "актёр" is in nominative case. So, in plural it will be "Мы - актёры". If there is a verb, for example, "являться", than you need instrumental case, i.e. "Я являюсь актёром" and "Мы являемся актёрами". Accusative is not used for this kind of sentences.
could one write "Мы — актёров"?
That would be understood as if there is some verb omitted: for example, "[that's] we [who have beaten] the actors [,not they have beaten us]".