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I start to studied Russian one month ago. My teacher show me how to use родительный падеж and дательный падеж but i really don't understand the differences.

For example if I want to say: He give me a rose - он подарил мне розу why I use мне and not мЕня ?

кому or кого meaning always "To Whom?" so how can I understand the difference between родительный падеж and дательный падеж if the question is always same and also the translation of мне / мЕня?

Thanks

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    because there's no such word as мня, there's word меня which is Genitive of я, but the verb давать doesn't govern Genitive case, it governs Dative and Accusative давать кому? что?... if you want to know why, this is rather a question about linguistics and logic of a language, try to compare with Italian and maybe you'll be able to grasp the logic
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Nov 12, 2018 at 15:19
  • Thanks for your fast reply, In Italian we always use same word as you can see from my Italian screenshot :) , so no difference for us. How Russian can understand in a phrase like that "он подарил мне розу" to use мне and not меня ?
    – Sarah
    Nov 12, 2018 at 15:24
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    if that's the case and Italian is no help, i guess it must just be memorized or fall back on English, or any other language you're familiar with, in English the verb to give always requires the preposition to (-> to give to) and the name of the case Дательный (Dative) in Russian derives from the same root as the word давать (to give), so when a verb means transfer of something between two objects it usually governs Dative case, but basically the cases need to be learned along with verbs
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Nov 12, 2018 at 15:32
  • Just memorize that the addressee, who is happy to receive your rose will be in the Dative кому? мне
    – V.V.
    Nov 12, 2018 at 15:33
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    кому? and кого? aren't translated identically into English - кому? is to/at whom? but кого? is (of) whom/whose
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Nov 12, 2018 at 16:51

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The Dative case (дательный падеж) is used for the addressee in 'give':

  • Он дал мне книгу. = Он дал книгу мне.
  • He gave me the book. = He gave the book to me.
  • Mi ha dato il libro. = Lui ha dato il libro a me.

The Accusative case (винительный падеж) is used for the direct object of the action:

  • Он дал мне книгу. (книгу is the Accusative of книга, book)
  • Он спросил меня. (меня is the Accusative of я, I)

The Genitive case (родительный падеж) often appears after prepositions like без, у, от:

  • Иди без меня. - Go without me.
  • У меня есть книга. - I have a book.

What complicates matters a bit, меня can be either Genitive or Accusative, depending on context. In "Он спросил меня" it's Accusative, not Genitive. Your teacher is mistaken.

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