The Nominative Case in Russian

The Nominative Case is the easiest case in Russian and should be the first one to learn.

Nouns and adjectives in the Nominative Case are the ones you see in the dictionary.

In other words, the Nominative Case is the “original” form of nouns and adjectives.

For example:

• девочка (girl)
• хороший (good)
• деньги (money)

In this lesson, I will cover everything you need to know about the Nominative Case and the concept of case in general.

To make things easier, I will divide this lesson into 4 parts:

1. What are cases?
2. When to use the Nominative Case;
3. Plural nouns in the Nominative Case;
4. Adjectives in the Nominative Case.

All the above titles have links. If there is any specific subject you would like to learn first, you can click on it and go straight to that part of the lesson.

What are Cases in Russian?

“Case” is normally a new concept for native speakers of English, so let's start the lesson by understanding what it is.

You can think about cases as different forms of the same word, which we use to specify what role that word has in a sentence.

For example, in English we can use the proposition with to specify what the instrument of a sentence is:

• I eat soup with a spoon.

In the above sentence, the preposition with lets us know that spoon is an instrument.

In Russian, however, we are able to specify what the instrument of a sentence is by using the Instrumental Case.

We can take the word ложка (spoon) and put it in the Instrumental Case:

• Я ем суп ложкой.

Note that we don't need any preposition in the above sentence. Using the right case is enough to let us know that “spoon” is the instrument of the sentence.

In total there are 6 cases in the Russian language:

1. Nominative
2. Genitive
3. Dative
4. Accusative
5. Instrumental
6. Prepositional

That basically means that each noun has 6 forms in the singular and 6 forms in the plural.

Let’s take the word “машина / car” as an example:

As you can see, because of the 6 cases, the word “машина” has a total of 12 forms.

Memorizing all the endings of every Russian noun may look scary, but you don’t have to worry about this.

At Mighty Languages, you can find complete lessons about all the Russian cases.

When we explain a case, we always group all the rules into a few patterns, which makes the memorization process much easier.

Common Uses of the Nominative Case

The Nominative Case is the dictionary form of a noun.

So, whenever you look for a new word in places like Mighty Languages Dictionary or Google Translate, the result is shown in the Nominative Case.

All the situations in which we use the Nominative Case are very basic. Let’s take a look at some of them.

The Nominative Case to Indicate the Subject of a Sentence

In Russian, the subject of a sentence is always in the Nominative Case.

For example:

• Девочка читает книгу (The girl is reading a book)
• Собака спит (The dog is sleeping)
• Mашина красная (The car is red)

Note that articles don’t exist in Russian, which means that there are no equivalents to the words “the“, “a” and “an” in Russian.

The Nominative Case after “это”

“Это” means “this”, “that”, “these” and “those”.

For example:

• Это книга (This is a book)
• Это мои друзья (These are my firends)

Note that there isn't any equivalent to the verb “is” in Russian either.

That’s because the verb “to be” is normally omitted in the present tense.

The Nominative Case after “вот”

“Вот” means “here is” or “here are”.

For example:

• Вот твой ключ (Here is your key)
• Вот деньги (Here is the money)

Very simple, right?

Now let’s take a look at the plural.

Plural Nouns in the Nominative Case

Forming the plural in Russian is very simple, but there are a few rules you will have to memorize.

To make things easier, let’s divide all the rules into 5 patterns.

1) When nouns end in a consonant, add Ы:

• стол – столы (table)
• кот – коты (cat)
• фильм – фильмы (film)
• студент – студенты (student)

Note that some masculine nouns take А instead of Ы.

Here are the most common of them:

• год – года (year)
• город – города (city)
• поезд – поезда (train)
• вечер – вечера (evening)

2) When nouns end in А, replace А with Ы:

• машина – машины (car)
• мама – мамы (mother)
• папа – папы (father)
• мужчина – мужчины (man)

There is a very common spelling rule in Russian that you have to apply here.

After the consonants к, г, ш, щ, ч, ж and х, you can’t write ы. Instead, you have to write и:

• книга – книги (book)
• девушка – девушки (girl)

There is a reason why this spelling rule exists.

If you try to pronounce any of these consonants with the vowel ы, you will notice it’s much more uncomfortable than with the vowel и.

Compare, for example, гы or чы and ги or чи.

ги and чи are much easier to pronounce, aren’t they?

So you just have to practice your Russian a little and you will easily be able to tell when you should use ы and when you should use и.

3) When nouns end in Й, Ь or Я, replace the last letter with И:

• словарь – словари (dictionary)
• музей – музеи (museum)
• тетрадь – тетради (notebook)
• ночь – ночи (night)
• песня – песни (song)
• тётя – тёти (aunt)

4) When nouns end in О, replace О with А:

• слово – слова (word)
• окно – окна (window)
• письмо – письма (letter)

5) When nouns end in Е, replace Е with Я:

• поле – поля (field)
• море – моря (sea)
• платье – платья (dress)

Now, keep in mind that, as in any other language, there are exceptions in Russian.

Here are the most common of them:

Adjectives in the Nominative Case

In Russian, each adjective has 4 forms: masculine, feminine, neuter and plural.

For example:

• новый год (a new year)
• новая куртка (a new jacket)
• новое блюдо (a new dish)
• новые дома (new houses)

As you can see, the adjective новый changes depending on the gender of the noun it describes.

Adjectives used with masculine nouns

1) The most common ending is ый:

• новый студент (a new student)
• белый снег (white snow)
• тёплый день (a warm day)

2) If the last consonant of the adjective is г, к, х, ж, ч, ш or щ the ending is normally ий:

• русский город (a Russian city)
• горячий шоколад (hot chocolate)
• хороший игрок (a good player)

03) And the least common ending is ой:

• дорогой подарок (an expensive gift)
• молодой человек (a young person)
• плохой день (a bad day)

Adjectives used with feminine nouns

01) The most commmon ending is ая:

• хорошая сумка (a good bag)
• новая машина (a new car)
• старая куртка (an old jacket)

02) Sometimes the ending is яя:

• летняя одежда (summer clothes)
• утренняя программа (a morning program)
• синяя кружка (a blue mug)

Adjectives used with neuter nouns

01) The most common ending is ое:

• новое платье (a new dress)
• вкусное яблоко (a tasty apple)
• красивое имя (a beautiful name)

02) Some adjectives end in ее:

• летнее время (summer time)
• горячее блюдо (a hot dish)
• хорошее платье (a good dress)

Adjectives used with plural nouns

When it comes to the plural, gender is no longer relevant.

1) The most common plural ending is ые:

• новые дома (new houses)
• старые письма (old letters)
• красивые девушки (beautiful girls)

2) Sometimes, the ending is ие:

• хорошие ученики (good students)
• русские песни (Russian songs)
• сладкие яблоки (sweet apples)

And those were all the endings that adjectives can have.