What is the declension of nouns? Cases in Russian

Not only schoolchildren and students of linguistic disciplines wonder what the declension of nouns is. After all, competent speech and spelling is not a whim of teachers and not a privilege of philologists. The question of what the declension of nouns in the Russian language can be answered in different ways, because this word has several, albeit similar, but still different meanings. Let's start with a brief excursion into etymology.

What is the declension of nouns?

To begin with, let’s take a look at the origin of the term. The word "declination" is tracing paper from the Latin declinatio, which means "deviation." This is not surprising, because inflection is a kind of anomaly in comparison with the main form of the noun. However, the category of "declination" means not only the process of transformation of words. It is also a certain type of nouns, similar to vary in the same model. In the Russian language there are three main declensions, but there are words that do not belong to any of the categories.

How do nouns change?

The parts of speech that interest us, with rare exceptions, are inclined in number and in cases. With the first criterion, everything is very simple - it shows the number of designated items. The number can be singular and plural. In the first case, we are dealing with nouns that designate only one subject. For example: garden, hearth. The plural includes words pointing to several objects (gardens, foci). There are exceptions.

So, in the Russian language there is a place for nouns that have the form of a singular (the so-called singularia tantum). An example is milk, fame. Similarly, there are nouns in the form of the plural only (which are called pluralia tantum). In this case, the following words can be cited as an example: darkness, scissors.

What is the declension of case nouns?

Now consider another possible change in the parts of speech that interest us. Decline by case - this means adapting the noun to use it with other words. This category also shows the syntactic role of the inclined parts of speech in a sentence. In most cases, declining the case means changing the end of the word. However, this ability belongs not only to this type of transformation of nouns.

The term "case" comes from the Latin cadere - to fall. Allocate direct and indirect cases. The first of these is the “normal” version of the word. This, of course, is a nominative, and in some cases an accusative case. The second is a "deviation" from the norm. This category includes all the remaining variants of the declension of nouns.

What cases are there?

In total, in the Russian case there are 6 possible options for changing nouns to associate them with other words. The first of them is the nominative case. As indicated above, this is the “correct”, natural form of the word, in Latin it is called the nominative. The genitive case, called the genitive, indicates belonging to someone or something, the dative (dative) indicates the object to which the action is directed. The accusative is similar to the first, nominative, however, has its own peculiarity. It is used after transitive verbs to indicate direct complement. In Latin, it is called accusative. An instrumental case (or instrumental) most often indicates a method, an instrument of action. In addition, it is used after such verbs: to lead, to engage, to own. And finally, the last, prepositional case is a preposition. It indicates the place, time, subject of speech or thought, is used only with pretexts.

We examined all the variants of declension in Russian. There may be differences with other languages. So, for example, in English speech, nouns have only two cases. The first of them, the general one is the habitual use of words. The second, possessive case, indicates, firstly, only animate nouns, which certainly mean a living being. Secondly, the subject must belong to some thing, sign or quality. The possessive case is formed using the special ending - “s”. In other languages, there are other features.

How to Decline Case Nouns?

This is easy to do. It is enough to know the so-called case questions, which make it possible to identify the Russian cases. The table below contains all the necessary data.

It should be noted that this information applies to all nouns, both singular and plural. Almost all words of the part of speech that we are considering are inclined in cases. But there are exceptions.

Which nouns are not inclined?

In the Russian language there are many words that have a foreign language origin (for example, highway, blinds). Some of them do not change either in cases or in numbers. In addition, they belong to the category of so-called non - declining nouns. Surnames ending in ––, –– (s) also remain unchanged. Complicated words (for example, deputy directors) also fall into this category.

What are the declensions of nouns?

As mentioned above, the term we disclose indicates not only the process of change and its path, but also generalized types of words that have the same modification models. In Russian, there are three declensions of nouns. The grammatical gender and the ending in the nominative case of the singular helps to determine which one to attribute a particular word to. You can clearly see the existing declination and their characteristics in the table below.

Are there any exceptions to the rule?

Not all nouns fall within the description of any type of declension indicated above. There are 4 exceptions. The first of them is the previously unshakable words that we examined. The second exception is nouns similar to adjectives. And they are inclined in the same way as the latter. Such words are also called adjective declension nouns. For example: a passerby, a bathroom. The third curiosity is dissonant nouns. Their peculiarity is that in different cases they have endings that are not inherent in more than one of the three types of declension. These include the words: path, burden, seed, udder, time, and others. And finally, the fourth exception is nouns that are declined as pronouns (draws).

How are words with the “half-” component inclined?

Such nouns have their own characteristics. In these words, the “half-” component in indirect cases, with the exception of the accusative, changes to “half-”. The second half, that is, the noun, changes according to general rules. Compound words with the “half-” component are not inclined, in which the main part indicates an animate object, for example: half-horse, half-goat.

Now, after considering all aspects of the topic in great detail, we should summarize. The declension of nouns is a complex linguistic category, which means some specific model of the transformation of words, as well as the process of changing them by cases and numbers. The basic rules of correct and competent declination should be known to children from school. And, of course, do not forget them, becoming adults, even if their profession is not connected with philology.