They speak Russian for good reason - the richest and most beautiful, but at the same time the most difficult in the world. Not a single language of the world has such a huge number of rules and exceptions to them, and also not one of them can boast such a great variety of not only words, but also their forms that can be formed if, for example, declining a noun by cases, or conjugate verbs. The endings are especially difficult because they connect all the words in a sentence into a single whole. Also, the determination of zero termination can cause problems. We will try to understand in more detail what zero ending is in this article.
What is an ending?
The ending is one of the morphemes that indicates the connection of this word with other words in one phrase or in a sentence. The ending is most often at the end of the sentence, but there are some exceptions. We will touch upon them a little later. Endings, unlike other morphemes, do not affect the meaning of a word, since they are not word-forming. It is thanks to him that one can determine the gender, case, number and face of a given word. For example, in the word "mainland" the ending -a indicates that the given word is singular, genitive and masculine, and in the word "thinks" the ending -et says that this third person singular construction.
Cases when the ending is not at the very end of the word
In determining the ending, some people may have difficulty, because they are sure that it must be at the end of the word. Cases in which the ending may be in the middle of a word:
• If there is a postfix in the word, the ending will be placed in front of it. For example: I cleaned SOMEONE, SOMETHING, GO.
• In complex quantitative numerals, the ending is present both in the middle of the word and at the end, that is, the ending will be after each stem. For example: fiveØ fiftyØ, four hundred. However, do not confuse the quantitative and ordinal numbers or adjectives that are derived from them. For example: fifty, four hundred, thirty-five thousand, eight-story, three-year, first-class, heptagonal.
The grammatical meaning of the ending
The endings are a very significant morpheme, since they completely affect the lexical meaning of the word and the whole sentence as a whole. Indeed, sometimes it is easiest to identify among the crowd of people foreigners is obtained precisely because the correct use of endings in words is given to them with great difficulty.
All endings in words can indicate the following grammatical meanings:
• the number, gender and case of such parts of speech as, for example,
a noun (for example: the canvas - the ending indicates that the word is in the nominative case, it is also in the singular and the middle gender); the adjective name (for example: a clean canvas - the ending –– indicates a singular, a middle gender and a nominative case); the sacrament (for example: a washed linen - the ending of the second also says that we have the word in the singular, in the nominative case and the middle gender); some pronouns (for example: your canvas - the ending – also indicates a word in the singular, nominative and middle gender) and some numerals (for example: one canvas - the ending –o also indicates a word in the singular of the middle gender and in the nominative case) ;
• only the case of some pronouns (for example: there is nothing - the ending of the ith speaks of the genitive case) and the part of the numerals (there is no seven - the ending of says that the word is in the genitive case);
• only the faces and numbers of verbs in the future and present tense (for example: I write - the first-person verb is a singular);
• only numbers and gender in past tense verbs (for example: she spoke - a feminine and singular verb).
What is zero ending?
Also, some difficulties may arise in determining the end, if it is zero. In order to easily identify it in a word, you need to understand what a zero ending is. Words with similar endings are often confused with words with no endings at all.
The zero ending of a word is an ending that is not expressed in either letters or sounds. Despite the fact that materially this type of ending is not expressed in any way, when analyzing the morphological structure of a word, it is necessary to designate it in the form of an empty square.
Kinds of words with zero endings
The following types of words have a zero ending in Russian:
• Nouns of the first person in the genitive and plural. For example: bird Ø, filling Ø, cow Ø, pets Ø.
• Qualitative adjectives, as well as short participles in the singular masculine gender, for example: resourceful Ø, individual Ø, inclined Ø, magnificent Ø, detained Ø, armed Ø.
• Zero ending of masculine nouns of the second type, as well as feminine in the third declension. For example: cockroach, parkan, felt Ø, stove Ø, speech Ø, night Ø.
• Possessive adjectives in the singular form of the masculine gender. For example: fathers Ø, mother’s, cow Ø, fox Ø, Seryozhn Ø.
• Singular verbs in the imperative mood. For example: consider, see, help, translate, ask.
• Verbs in the subjunctive and indicative mood in the masculine gender in the past tense and in the presence of the singular. For example: he said Ø - he would speak Ø, he would listen Ø - he would listen Ø, he would vote Ø - he would vote Ø, he would ask Ø - he would ask Ø.
In morphological analysis, people often confuse words with zero endings with words that have no endings at all. To understand all the differences, consider what words have no ending at all.
Words that have no ending at all
The ending does not have such immutable words and groups of words:
• unshakable nouns, for example: taxi, coffee, car, coat;
• adamant adjectives, for example: bordeaux, khaki, marengo, net, baroque, Esperanto, accordion pleats;
• possessive pronouns, which indicate belonging to a third party, for example: their, her, him;
• all adverbs, since an adverb is an invariable part of speech and by definition no longer has an end, for example: bad, sad, noticeable, obscure, confused, colored, redone;
• words in a comparative form, for example: stronger, smarter, faster, more understandable, more beautiful, sadder, more magnificent;
• all the participles, since this part of the speech has taken on its adverb from the adverb and, like the adverb, cannot end, for example: by reading, washing, understanding, reading, remembering, remembering, disassembling, realizing;
• all service parts of speech, for example: so that, if, not, nor, despite the fact that, only, barely, just, without, above, under, in;
• interjection, for example: yes, yes, priests, wow, oh, flop, bang, these are the times;
• the initial form of the verb in the case if -tye is perceived as a suffix, for example: eat, accept, feel, understand, respect, worry, act.
Also, in a letter during morphological analysis, words that have no endings at all should not be indicated on a letter with an empty square. Easily distinguish words without endings from zero endings will help one rule. Words without endings are not changeable, unlike words with zero endings.
How to determine the ending?
To determine the ending in any word, it is enough just to decline it in cases. That part of the word that will change is what it is. It is in this way that it is easy to identify the zero ending. Examples of words with such an ending, as well as words that do not have one, are presented in the following table:
Case | Question | Singular | Plural | Immutable Word |
Nominative | Who! What? | mirror | mirrors | pleated |
Genitive | Whom? What? | mirrors | mirrors Ø | pleated |
Dative | To whom? Why? | mirrors | mirrors | pleated |
Accusative | Whom? What? | mirror | mirrors | pleated |
Instrumental | By whom? Than? | Mirror | mirrors | pleated |
Prepositional | About whom? About what? | mirror | mirrors | pleated |
In this example, it is noticeable how easily this morpheme can be defined in words. Since the word “accordion pleats” does not decline in cases, this word has no ending, and in the word “mirrors” only the root and zero ending are represented, because this is a noun in the plural and in the genitive.
Morphemes with which the zero ending interacts
In the majority of considered examples, the most common words are those in which among the morphemes only the root and zero ending are used. All other morphemes can be combined with a similar ending. For example, words with a prefix, root, zero ending: story, transition, departure, exit, swim. There are also words, in the morphemic analysis of which you can see the prefix, root, suffix and zero ending. For example: a teenager, put, predicted, timed. Very often words are used in which there are simultaneously a postfix and a zero ending in Russian. For example: put on makeup, cheered up, sit down, help, imagine, armed.
Soft sign in morphemic analysis
Note that a soft sign cannot be the end of a word. This sign does not mean any sound, but only indicates the softness of the consonant that stands in front of it. If the word ends with a soft sign, then it should be considered that it has a zero ending. However, this rule does not apply to immutable words. For example, in spite of the fact that in structures only, away, jump up at the end there is a soft sign, these words should not be considered with a zero ending. They are immutable, and they have no endings at all.
Features of the morphemic analysis of the word
The ending is the only variable part in the word. All other morphemes together form its basis. In the morphemic analysis, it is perhaps easiest to identify the ending in the word, since for this it is enough to slightly modify the word.
Small difficulties that could arise with the correct definition of the ending are to distinguish between words with a zero ending, as well as words with no ending at all. Since in this article it was found out what a zero ending is, then the analysis of this morpheme will not be any difficulties.