27
votes
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Russian cases: A few examples, I'm really confused
You got the cases right in all three sentences.
I'll try to provide English translations which would be as close to the literal meaning of the Russian phrases as possible.
Please note that they are ...
- 52.2k
23
votes
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Can we call forms like "Зин", "Дим", "мам", "пап" vocative case?
The new vocative has nothing to do with the old vocative (whose forms would've been *Маше, *Зино and *Димо, indistinguishable by ear from the nominative but probably reflected in writing).
If we are ...
- 19.3k
19
votes
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What form is "в гости"?
Two objections to people dismissing this "because it's an adverb":
Adverb or not, it started out as a noun and a preposition, and the case form still has to be explained somehow.
More importantly: ...
- 19.3k
18
votes
Can we call forms like "Зин", "Дим", "мам", "пап" vocative case?
I totally agree with the answer Nikolay provided, I just want to add one other important points made by opponents of calling this new forms vocative case, here's a quote:
Основное различие – с ...
- 37.9k
18
votes
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Why is лицо in the prepositional case, and why does свой not match its case?
You're reading the Bible in the Synodal translation (1813—1876) which uses archaic language full of Church Slavonic words and forms. Лице is an archaic form of лицо, it is in the Accusative case which ...
- 26k
16
votes
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What's the purpose of своё in this sentence?
The word «время» is omitted, but implied: «отжить свое время» = «to live past one's time». So in this case, it means that the fern (папоротник) is very old or maybe even dead.
The phrase «отжить свое» ...
- 1,485
14
votes
Why "мамы здесь нет", not "мама здесь нет"
Negative construction with "нет" always needs genitive in Russian and answers the question "нет кого/чего", and not "нет кто" which is ungrammatical:
Нет кого? - Нет мамы.
However you can say "...
- 4,319
14
votes
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Express "ten" in Russian: difference between десять, десятка, десяток
Десятка - typically, an informal reference to something numbered 10 (like a bus following route 10) or about a 10 ruble banknote (in the past, when it mattered more) - now it can sometimes informally ...
- 11.9k
14
votes
How to say "give to my girlfriend's mother" in Russian?
Your guess is both grammatically correct and idiomatic:
Я хочу́ подари́ть э́ту кни́гу ма́ме мое́й подру́ги (на Рождество́).
You used the dative case for ма́ма -> ма́ме 'to mother' and the ...
- 16.1k
13
votes
Accepted
Why use the instrumental "чем-то" instead of "что-то" in: "Ты чем-то похож на него"?
Чем-то does not mean "somewhat" or "slightly". It means "somehow", "in some vague or elusive way", which is not quite the same. It's quite independent of the predicate, whether adjectival or verbal. ...
- 19.3k
13
votes
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Case Disagreement: Noun and its Adjective
This sentence is grammatically sound. The reason for the apparent disagreement is the following.
The verb предпочитать takes two objects:
a direct object in the accusative (зелёный чай)
an optional ...
- 16.1k
13
votes
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Is the sentence "Мусоропровод забит жильцами" totally ungrammatical in Russian?
It's totally grammatical, in theory ambiguous but however on practice, since it's way more common to see a rubbish chute ruined by people rather than a rubbish suite filled up with human beings - this ...
- 37.9k
13
votes
What's the purpose of своё in this sentence?
Why is своё in this sentence and why does it have this specific declension?
Отжить своё is a set expression literally meaning "to outlive one's own (allotted time)".
It's not a case of ...
- 52.2k
12
votes
Accepted
Genitive of радио
Many loanwords don't decline in Russian, mostly those that don't intuitively fit into one of the existing paradigms (no regular Russian neuter noun ends in -о preceded by a vowel), and to see why, it'...
- 19.3k
12
votes
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Why is «Какого цвета» in genitive case?
Nominative doesn't work for the same reason it doesn't work in this English statement:
*The dress is red colour.
But we can make it work using 'of':
The dress is of red colour.
I don't know why ...
- 16.1k
11
votes
"Aэропорт "Домодедово" - why not genitve?
Домодедово is the proper name of the airport, which is technically called Москва (Домодедово). It's not an "airport serving Domodedovo" (although it does serve it among other cities of course), it's ...
- 52.2k
11
votes
Accepted
What are the rules of the locative case?
But just today, I notice that the locative case isn't used once it is
modified by an adjective?
Not quite, it's totally correct to say
На белом/рыхломadj. снегУ
На крутомadj. валУ
В ...
- 19.6k
11
votes
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"В об(о,е)их коробках оказались семена" - which vowel should I choose?
You can interpret "коробки" as a plural of "коробка" or "коробок", so it's obviously a trick question. With seeds either one would make sense. The examples you've found are indeed utterly incorrect ...
- 1,750
11
votes
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Why is "дозу" in this sentence in the accusative case?
The song in question is Прятки by HammAli And Navai, that phrase is shortly after 1:50.
There are two points to be noted:
• most probably there is no word c there;
• дозу is the direct object of дай.
...
- 26k
10
votes
"Она учит русский язык" или "Она учит русскому языку?"
“Учить” can mean ‘to teach’, but also it can mean ‘to learn, to study’.
When it means ‘to teach’, it is usually followed by two objects, an Accusative object (the person being taught), and a Dative ...
- 26k
10
votes
Accepted
What case after "с"?
With instrumental, с means "with". With genitive, с means "from" or "off" — that is, moving away from a thing's surface (as opposed to из which is for moving away from inside a thing). You take a ...
- 19.3k
10
votes
Accepted
How to say "give to my girlfriend's mother" in Russian?
You guess is absolutely correct, technically there's an other valid option:
Я хочу подарить эту книгу подругиной маме.
But while this is grammaticaly valid talking of specifically word подруга it'...
- 37.9k
10
votes
Accepted
дверями vs дверьми
Despite they are completely interchangeable, the latter is a bit bookish.
Ending -ьми in instrumental case plural is lost, except for these words:
дочери - дочерьми / дочерями,
лошади - лошадьми / ...
- 8,346
10
votes
Accepted
Why nominative case in "на ужин"?
In the russian language, "завтрак", "обед" and "ужин" have the same spelling in nominative and accusative cases.
And in your examples ("на завтрак", "на обед" and "на ужин") these words are in ...
- 1,643
10
votes
Почему Фёдор Достоевский, но Чарльз Буковски?
Транскрипция только польских фамилий даёт в русском варианте "-ий", и если это делается через английский язык, то в случаях, когда польское происхождение носителя фамилии хорошо известно, например ...
- 11.9k
9
votes
Accepted
Noun case and plurality
First, a side note: unlike most other languages, you don't use имею in Russian unless there's a reason to. See this question:
Иметь vs у меня for physical things
In your case, you say
У меня ...
- 52.2k
9
votes
Why do we use "об этом" for 'about it"
"about it", is usually translated as "об этом"
Could also be про это. There's even a poem Про это by Mayakovskij.
why there is no noun after a demonstrative pronoun?
Because Это may also be used ...
- 15.3k
9
votes
Is there ever a time when one uses по́ле to refer to the floor?
Sure, with any preposition except в or на:
… богатым было и внутреннее убранство церкви: старики упоминали о паркетном поле и хрустальном паникадиле
При наливном поле она (демпферная лента) ...
- 52.2k
9
votes
Accepted
Why do some nouns take the genitive case instead of the accusative?
This appears to happen most often, if not exclusively, with uncountable nouns.
Yes, bearing in mind that some uncountable nouns can be used as countable to denote fixed quantities of the uncountable ...
- 16.1k
9
votes
Why use the instrumental "чем-то" instead of "что-то" in: "Ты чем-то похож на него"?
The first sentence is completely regular with no funny business. Чем ты похож на него? — Чем-то.
In the second sentence “что-то” isn’t really part of the sentence but rather it denotes the speaker’s ...
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