Numerals changing the case of adjectives and nouns

Question

In the nominative case, numbers ending with 1 govern the nominative/singular in the noun, numbers ending with 2-4 govern genitive/singular and all others genitive/plural. (That is the "easy" part, can be found in almost any Russian grammar)

There is also a rule for accusative case: (see grammar for numerals ending on 2-4)

In the accusative case, animate nouns become genitive plural and inanimate nouns remain in genitive singular.

I could not find any rule for the accusative after the other numerals (i.e. numerals not ending on 2-4) - do these follow the noun (accusative/singular after 1, genitive/plural for all others), do they follow the numeral (accusative/singular after 1, accusative/plural for the others), or is there another rule?

Again from the same grammar, a little bit is explained about adjectives:

While the noun in a nominative construction is in the genitive singular following два or две, an intervening adjective or adjectival participle will be in the genitive plural or nominative plural

If два is in nominative case, the adjective will be nominative plural when the noun is feminine

If два is in accusative case, the adjective will be nominative plural only if the noun is feminine inanimate

Again, the same question, what happens to adjectives behind the other numbers (that don't end on 2-4). Do they follow the noun, the numeral or is there also a similar special rule depending on gender?

Answer 1

1. The Accusative case of 1 + noun and 5 or more + noun

Both один and the noun take the Accusative case according to their gender and animateness/inanimateness if the gender is masculine. Один agrees in case and gender with the noun:

Я вижу одного человека. (masculine animate, acc.sg.=gen.sg.)

Я вижу один трактор. (masculine inanimate, acc.sg.=nom.sg.)

Я вижу одну девушку. (feminine, acc.sg.)

Я вижу одно окно. (neutral, acc.sg.=nom.sg.)

With пять or more, the noun takes the Genitive plural:

Я вижу пять человек/тракторов/девушек/окон. (gen.pl.)

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2. Intervening adjectives or adjectival participles between 1 and a noun or between 5 or more and a noun

An intervening adjective or adjectival participle agrees in gender, case and number with the following noun.

With один:

Я вижу одного молодого человека. (masculine animate, acc.sg.=gen.sg.)

Я вижу один старый трактор. (masculine inanimate, acc.sg.=nom.sg.)

Я вижу одну красивую девушку. (feminine, acc.sg.)

Я вижу одно большое окно. (neutral, acc.sg.=nom.sg.)

With пять or more:

Я вижу пять спящих котов. (gen.pl.)

Я вижу пять старых тракторов. (gen.pl.)

Я вижу пять красивых девушек. (gen.pl.)

Я вижу пять больших окон. (gen.pl.)

Answer 2

Case of the noun phrase : the phrase

• Nominative : пять котов (пять котов мяукали)
• Genitive : пяти котов (у меня нет пяти котов)
• Dative: пяти котам (насыпал корм пяти котам)
• Accusative: пять котов (поймал пять котов)
• Instrumental: пятью котами (обошёлся пятью котами)
• Prepositional: о пяти котах (поэма о пяти котах)

We see that the if the noun phrase is in X case, the noun is in X plural, except for the nominative case, which turns genitive/accusative (genitive plural and accusative plural is the same).

In other words, the number turns nominative plural to genitive plural (коты мяукали => пять котов мяукали) but does not change other cases (насыпал корм котам => насыпал корм пяти котам etc.)

Answer 3

Russian number + adjective + noun combination and their cases