The grammar of the Russian language is incredibly vast and at the same time extremely complex. However, if you properly understand the topic that poses a problem for you, eventually everything will fall into place.

In this article we will talk about how to distinguish the accusative from the genitive, and about several more difficulties in declension of nouns and pronouns. Let's start with the basic concepts and rules.

The meaning of cases in Russian

To connect words in sentences, all independent parts of speech can take the necessary form: verbs change according to tenses, numbers, persons and voices, and nouns, numerals, adjectives, participles and pronouns - according to numbers and cases. This is how they carry out their task in sentences, but for this it is necessary to incline them correctly.

There are only 6 cases in the Russian language, each of them has auxiliary questions and its own endings. However, when choosing the latter, it is strictly necessary to take into account Plus, all adjectives, participles and numerals associated with the words of this part of speech also depend on it. Thus, in order to learn how to change all these morphological units by case, you first need to study this category in detail.

Declension

TO constant signs nouns as parts of speech include gender (feminine, masculine, neuter), declension (1st, 2nd, 3rd, indeclinable and indeclinable words). You should also distinguish between animate and inanimate nouns, common and proper nouns. And it is on the second category that the change in cases depends, or rather the addition of the necessary ending.

You need to know that the first declension includes both masculine and masculine nouns. feminine with the endings “-a” and “-ya”, for example, rainbow, fox, man. In the second - masculine with null ending(son-in-law, genius, yogurt) and everything (window, grief, bed), and in the third - only those feminine words that end in “b” (mother, night, lynx). However, for case changes, the declension of nouns matters only in singular, since in the plural all words of a given part of speech have the same endings (“-ы/-и,-а/-я”), for example, foxes, yoghurts, mothers, shores, anchors.

The role of cases

Each of the six cases in the Russian language has its own meaning and purpose of application in the text. Thus, with their help, words fulfill their syntactic role, forming a connection with in phrases.

Also, by case, you can determine which member of the sentence refers to given name noun: if it is in the nominative case, it is a subject, if it is in the prepositional case and answers the question “Where?”, in the genitive (“from where?”) or in the accusative (“where?”) it is an adverbial case, in other cases it is an object .

As for adjectives and participles, they, regardless of case, are definitions, just like quantitative ones. But quantitative ones are always circumstances with the meaning of measure and degree and answer the question “how much?”

Not subject to change by case

Indeclinable and indeclinable nouns require special attention. The first of these include words mainly borrowed from foreign languages. For example, casino, popsicle, muffler, flowerpot, coffee, etc. Their form is unchanged, that is, they cannot be declined by case, since their ending will remain the same. In this regard, the problem of how to distinguish the accusative from the genitive or which ending to choose when writing does not concern this category of words, and therefore they are easy to use in the text.

I. p.: What’s in the cup? - delicious coffee

R. p.: no what? - delicious coffee

D. p.: add to what? - to delicious coffee

V. p.: want what? - delicious coffee

T.p.: what does it smell like? - delicious coffee

P. p.: think about what? - about delicious coffee

Change by cases outside the rules of declension

However, significant difficulty is presented by inflexible words, there are only 11 of them (path + 10 on “-name”: seed, udder, burden, crown, stirrup, tribe, time, name, flame, banner). When they change by case, they take endings of different declensions. In addition, only a noun in the accusative case or a nominative from a series of words starting with “-mya” does not require the addition of the suffix “-en” for singular declension. In other cases it is necessary.

However, this is precisely why the question of how to distinguish the accusative case from the genitive case does not concern heterodeclinable nouns, since their form is c. n. is identical to i. p. Vo plural In the genitive case, the suffixes “-yon” (“names, tribes”) and “-yan” (“stirrups, seeds”) are added to them. It’s easier to remember this visually: from the attached photo there is a “table of cases of differently indeclinable nouns.”

Main difficulty

To learn how to cope with the task of how to distinguish the accusative case from the genitive case, you need to learn how to correctly ask questions to words and determine morphological characteristics nouns. This will help you take advantage a little trick by replacement difficult words to those that are clearly distinguished in these two cases, that is, to any example of the 1st declension.

So, if you see in the text an animate noun in the plural, then instead you should mentally use an inanimate noun in the same form. For example, “I see who? - people” (“I see what? - books” - since it is not a subject, it is not an ip. p., which means we choose a v. p.), “there is no one? - people” ( “no what? - books” - p.).

If the problem is an animate noun of the masculine gender of the 2nd declension, then substitute “mother” instead, and then ask questions of the accusative case and the genitive case. For example, do I see who? - donkey (I see who? - mom - v.p.), no one? - donkey (no one? - mothers - r.p.). A similar trick should be used to distinguish between accusative and genitive (personal and reflexive), and possessives should be declined based on the nouns associated with them.

How to distinguish Nominative from Accusative?

1. The nominative case differs from the accusative case in questions. Nominative case questions - who? What? For example: (who?) girl, (what?) ball.
   And questions of the accusative case - who? What? . For example: said (who? what?) a word, did (who? what?) work.
   To distinguish the accusative case from the nominative case, you can substitute the word see. I see (who? what?) a ball - this noun is in the accusative case.
   Also:
   1Nouns in these case forms perform different syntactic
   functions: in the nominative case the role of the subject, in the accusative
   additions.
   2Nouns in the nominative case are used without prepositions. In the accusative case there are prepositions in, on, for, through.
2. If you mean in a sentence, then the Accusative (in a sentence) differs from the Nominative in that: If the noun is the subject, then it is By Him. case, and if secondary. member then wine.
3. The nominative answers the questions who, what... and the accusative who, what
4. We need to ask two questions: who? What? - Nominative, (blame) WHO? What? - Accusative. Also WHO? what? - Genitive.
5. The nominative case answers the question who, what. For example: who? (fox)
   Accusative of whom, what. For example: I see who? (fox)
6. 
   
7. Ask two questions at once: who? what? - genitive; whom? What? - accusative.
   The word sister also helps. We put the word sister instead of the substantive, the case of which is difficult for us to determine, and, no matter how ridiculous the resulting sentence may look, but if SISTERS is inserted, the genitive case is used, if SISTER is the accusative case.
8. Them. -Who? what?, vin. -whom? What?
9. Who, what? no prepositions, always the subject in the sentence
   Who, what? there may be prepositions minor member offers.
10. When asking a question, the nominative case answers questions (who? what?), and the accusative case (whom? what?)
11. 
    
12. The nominative case answers the questions WHO? WHAT? (example: earth, fox, water, house...) And the accusative to the questions of Who? What? (land, fox, water, house)
13. Thank you very much for the information, otherwise I’ve already forgotten everything in 25 years!
14. The nominative case is always the subject,
    The accusative case is an addition (if without a preposition).

    To avoid mistakes, take a feminine word, for example, “book,” and in the sentence where you need to determine the case, replace the problematic word with “book.”

    Will you have it or who? What? - “book” (Nominative p.), or whom? What? "book" (Vinit. p.)

15. eminent case - questions who? What? accusative - questions of whom? What?
16. The first answers the questions Who? What?
    Second on Who? What???
17. A noun in the nominative case answers the question “Who?” or “What?”, in the accusative case it answers the question: “Who?”, “What?” (I see who, what?. I blame who, what?)
18. and how to distinguish?
19. In the nominative case there is most often a subject ( character or the subject referred to in the sentence).

How to distinguish the accusative case from the genitive case.

Genitive.

According to definitions, the genitive case means:

Belonging to someone or something, for example “an arctic fox skin”, “teacher’s journal”;

If there is a relationship between the whole and its part, for example, “magazine page (RP)”;

Displaying an attribute of an object in relation to another object, for example, “survey results (RP)”;

The object of influence in the presence of a verb with a negative particle “not”, for example, “does not eat meat (R.p.)”;

The object of influence in the presence of a verb denoting desire, intention or removal, for example,

“to wish happiness (R.p.)”, “to avoid responsibility (R.p.)”;

If there is a comparison of objects, for example, “ stronger than oak(R.p.)";

If the noun is the object of measurement, counting, or date genitive, such as "spoon

sour cream" or "Paris Commune Day".

Accusative case.

The accusative case means:

Transition of action to the subject completely, for example, “leafing through a magazine,” “driving a car”;

Transfer of spatial and temporal relations “walk a mile”, “rest for a month”;

In rare cases, it is formed as a dependence on an adverb, for example, “it’s a shame for a friend.”

In order to never confuse the cases of a noun, it is important to remember that each case in Russian

corresponds to a universal question, asking which to a given noun, we ultimately get

corresponding case.

The genitive case corresponds to the question “there is no one?” for the animate and “no what?” For

inanimate

nouns

The accusative case corresponds to the question “I see who?” for the animate and “I see what?” For

inanimate nouns.

Determining the cases of nouns by their definitions or endings is extremely difficult.

Let's say

remembering all the definitions of the genitive and accusative cases is quite difficult. And the endings

nouns coincide quite often.

Let's give an example using animate noun in the plural:

I noticed people nearby. (I see who? - V.p.)

There were no people around. (there was no one? - R.p.)

As you can see, in both cases the word is declined the same way.

But, in order to finally make sure that the case is determined correctly, mentally substitute

instead of an animate noun, an inanimate one.

For example:

I noticed a pillar nearby. (I see who? - V.p.)

There were no pillars around. (there was no one? - R.p.)

The example shows: an inanimate noun in the accusative case does not change, unlike

the same noun having the genitive case.

From this we can draw conclusions:

1. To distinguish the genitive from the accusative, ask the noun a defining question.

2. If it is difficult for you to determine the case of an animate noun, because the question “who?” refers to

both cases, then substitute an inanimate noun instead and ask it

defining question. For the genitive it will be “no what?”, and for the accusative “I see what?”. If

the word will look like in the nominative case, then the case of your noun is accusative.

Useful advice.

In Russian there are indeclinable nouns, for example, “coat”, “coffee”, when in any

case the word looks the same. In this case, case can only be determined by the key question.

The genitive case can also be determined using the test word "cat". Putting it in place

any noun specified word, pay attention to the ending. Example: instead of a word

“teacher” in the phrase “pride in the teacher”, substituting the test word, we get

the phrase “pride in the cat.” The ending “i” indicates the genitive case, the ending “u” indicates

accusative.

Remember that the genitive case always indicates the relationship between the whole and the part (a glass of water),

comparison with something or someone (prettier than Vasilisa) and belonging (brother’s motorcycle).

The accusative case describes and denotes time-spatial relations (wait a minute), and

also indicates a transition from an action to an object (petting a cat).

Source

E. I. Litnevskaya. Russian language: short theoretical course for schoolchildren.

Interesting article!!!

13 cases of the Russian language.

Name: Accusative case.

Accusative case, answering questions from whom? what?, is used only in combination with a verb and its forms: participle and gerund. The main, typical function of the accusative case is to express the direct object of action with transitive verbs: I look at a picture, I prepare a lesson, I open a book, I put on a dress.

The accusative tense denotes the time of the action: Meet every day. He wasn't feeling well last night.
The accusative quantity is used to indicate value, when indicating the quantitative side of the manifestation of a verbal action. It costs two rubles. Repeat three times.
The accusative measure indicates a measure of time or space. Wait a whole week. Walk five kilometers.
The accusative of the object names the object to which the action is directed. Read a book. Throw the ball.
The accusative of result denotes the thing that is the result of the action. Dig a hole. Sew a dress.

To find out the accusative case, you need to substitute the word VINYU to the noun, that is, I ACCUSE, or I SEE.

I blame (who?) the boy
I see (who?) a baby elephant
I see (what?) a palm tree

Prepositions with the accusative case: IN, ON, FOR, UNDER, THROUGH, ABOUT.

In addition, the accusative case, in combination with transitive verbs formed from intransitive ones using prefixes, denotes a measure of time and distance: work for a whole month, sleep the whole way, run three thousand meters.

In combination with intransitive verbs the accusative case can also denote a measure of weight, time, distance and cost: weigh a whole ton, improve all your life, rest for a week, run a mile, cost a penny, etc.

The accusative case is:
1) a noun form included in the singular and plural paradigm, with one of the following endings (in orthographic form):
singular - horse, land, wife, land, swamp, field, bone, daughter, name, path;
plural - horses, land, wives, lands, swamps, fields, bones, daughters, names, paths;
2) a number of such noun forms, united by the system of meanings described below;
3) the form of an adjective or participle included in the paradigm, with one of the following endings (in orthographic form):
in the singular - round and round, round, round; blue and blue, blue, blue; strong and strong, strong, strong; fox and fox, fox, fox;
in the plural - round and round, blue and blue, strong and strong, fox and fox;
4) a number of such forms of an adjective or participle, united by a common syntactic function.

The main meanings of the accusative case are objective and attributive.
Object value case manifests itself:
1) with transitive verbs: buy a house, read a book, wait for a friend;
2) with predicatives: it’s a pity, it’s a pity (it’s a pity for my brother), and also it’s necessary, it’s necessary, it hurts, it’s visible, it’s heard, it’s noticeable - when the sentence contains an indication of the subject of the state: I need a pass; His arm hurts;
3) in one-part sentences meaning the required object: A carriage for me!; Reward for the brave! Determinative (by measure, time, quantity).

Subject meaning appears only in a sentence. This:
1) the accusative case, placed in the initial position in sentences reporting the state of a person, with a predicate - a verb with the meaning of emotional or external state and the subject is an abstract noun: I am saddened by failure, alarmed by lies; The guys were inspired by the success; The family suffered grief; also: He is drawn to travel; The interlocutor is tempted to argue;
2) in sentences such as The child is shivering; The patient feels sick; I'm shaking all over.
Subjective meaning is combined with objective meaning in such types of sentences as The stars are visible; Voices are heard when the perceiving subject is not indicated in the sentence (stars are visible and someone sees stars), as well as in sentences like: A man was killed; A fighter was wounded, in which the subject of the action is not indicated (a person was killed and a person was killed). The increase in the subjective meaning of a v. p. in a sentence is always determined joint action syntactic and lexical-semantic factors.

The accusative case is combined with a wide range of prepositions - simple and derivative. In combination with simple prepositions - in, on, for, about (ob), according to, under, about, with, through - can have a definitive meaning (in place, time, measure, quality, property, purpose, purpose, reason, etc. .), objective (go deep into work, vote for a candidate, capable of anything, hurt yourself on a joint, go picking berries, think about children), and also performs the function of a necessary informatively replenishing form (reputed as an eccentric, known as a talker).

In a sentence, this case with simple prepositions, in addition to the named meanings, can denote a predicative feature (in the predicate: Letter - to the ministry; Medal - for courage; Path - through the mountains) or extend the sentence as a whole, expressing different types determination (In a snowstorm it’s scary to be in a field; A mile from the city there is a lake; Under New Year all sorts of miracles are possible; I haven’t slept for a week; There is a store across the road), or an object meaning (For five - three skis; Not a word about those who left). In sentences such as Fear attacked me; Thought came over him; The guys became stubborn.

In combination with the prepositions for, with, under V. p. in combination with a certain range of words expresses approximateness: He is over thirty; There were over forty visitors; She's nearly fifty; I received a hundred congratulations; We waited for half an hour; About a dozen students are sick. In combination with derivative prepositions and prepositional formations - in response to, including, excluding, despite, despite, after a little, an hour, a minute, a day, passing, through, after a day, an hour, a year, a century.

How to distinguish the accusative case from the genitive and nominative?

Perhaps the most interesting of all cases in the Russian language is the accusative. Because everyone else calmly answers their questions and does not cause difficulties. With the accusative case everything is different. It can very easily be confused with a nominative or genitive. After all the accusative case answers the questions “Whom?” What?" The accusative case denotes the object of the action. A noun, being in the accusative case, experiences the action of another noun, which in this sentence is a predicate. Everything becomes clear with the example: “I love my brother.” The noun "brother" will be in the accusative case. And he will experience a feeling of love from the pronoun “I”. What you should pay attention to when determining the case, so as not to confuse it with the nominative, is the ending. Below is the table:

To distinguish the accusative case from the genitive case, we will use auxiliary words and questions. For the genitive - no (who, what), for the accusative - I see (who, what). As you can see, the questions are different for animate and inanimate objects. Let's play on this.

Let's look at an example:

“Grandma is not at home.” Let's substitute an inanimate object - “there are no keys in the house.” No one, what? Grandmothers, keys. Genitive.

“I don’t see a plate on the table.” Let's substitute an animate object - “I don’t see my brother on the table.” I don’t see who – my brother, I don’t see what – a plate. Whom, what – accusative case.

Features of the accusative case.

The accusative case is used with prepositions such as “In, for, about, on, through.” Difficulties may still arise with the accusative case when tense concepts are indicated in sentences. Let's give an example: “Rewrite an essay all night.” The nouns “night” and “abstract” are in the accusative case in this sentence. You need to be extremely careful with such offers. Along with the confusion between the accusative and the nominative, it can also be confused with the genitive. Let's give an example: “Wait for mother” and “Wait for message.” In the first case the case will be genitive, and in the second case it will be accusative. Here the difference is due to the declination of animate and inanimate objects, as we already wrote above.