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Simple question at the end of my textbook (finally)...

I'm supposed to provide the proper form for a possessive pronoun in the blank:

  • Где ____ машина! Вы видели ____ машину?
  • Нет, я не видел ____ машину.

I supplied, in order,

моя мою вашу

But it was suggested that the last one may also be

вашей

Does it matter?

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3 Answers 3

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Ваш is a possessive pronoun and as such has to agree in case with the noun it defines.

This means that in your example, where машина is in sg. acc., the pronoun should be in sg. acc. as well, so вашу is the right answer here indeed.

However, negative statements in Russian allow both accusative and genitive for the objects. So both я не видел вашу машину and я не видел вашей машины are valid.

You should use one case, gender and number for both the object and the pronoun, though.

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"Вашей" is definitely wrong, it should be "вашу":

Нет, я не видел вашу машину.

The direct object of the sentence, "машину", is in the Accusative case, that is why its attribute should also be in the Accusative ("вашу"), because the possessive pronoun "ваша" aggrees in case with the noun it modifies.

Note, that in Russian, if the predicate verb is negative, the direct object can be in the Genitive case, not in the Accusative as usually. So, if the task were to insert "ваша" into such a sentence as "Нет, я не видел ____ машины" in which the direct object is in the Genitive case, then "вашей" would fit it well, since "вашей" is the Genitive case of "ваша".

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  • Huh! I always thought that this grammar mistake is in a spoken and casual writing language only. It is rather curious for me how it could be missed by correctors.
    – Arhadthedev
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 7:00
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    @Arhad: При переходных глаголах с отрицанием в одних случаях явно преобладает употребление родительного падежа дополнения, в других – употребление винительного падежа, в третьих – наблюдается факультативное их использование (Rosenthal et al., p. 201)
    – Quassnoi ♦
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 16:30
  • @Quassnoi, это констатация употребления в живой речи («явно преобладает»). Но по факту это нарушение правил согласования (видел (что?) машину — откуда здесь родительный? Частица вроде бы не изменяет падеж).
    – Arhadthedev
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 16:50
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    @Arhad: видел машину but не видел машину, не видел машины. Direct object in genitive is a negative polarity item in Russian: it can be used in negative context but can't in affirmative.
    – Quassnoi ♦
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 19:55
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Good comments above! As was already stated, adjectives and pronouns agree with the noun they are describing in number, gender and case.

Let's see what that looks like below in a bit more detail.

  • Где моя машина? моя машина - singular feminine noun in the nominative case. This is the form you will find in the dictionary.

-Вы видели мою машину? мою машину - singular feminine noun in the accusative case. This case is used to denote the direct object of the sentence. In this sentence "мою машину" is the direct object of the verb "видели".

-Нет, я не видел вашу машину. вашу машину - Same story here with singular feminine noun in the accusative case.

These resources will be of assistence.

https://www.multitran.ru/c/M.exe?a=1&a=1 - Multitran online dictionary. Gives examples of usage in specific fields

Wiktionary/Викисловарь - for verb conjugations and noun declensions https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/знать https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/Заглавная_страница

Good reference for learning cases http://www.russianlessons.net/grammar/nouns_accusative.php

Удачи

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