Prepositional Case
Modifiers
Stems & Endings
• Russian nouns and modifiers have stems and
endings. The stems are more or less fixed, while
the endings change, predictably and consistently,
according to the gender, number and FUNCTION
of the noun.
• Noun’s are the boss: They tell the modifiers what
to do.
• Every noun has a function in a sentence: Subject,
object, indirect object, object of a preposition,
etc.
Prepositional Case
• Certain prepositions “govern” the
prepositional case. That means that the nouns
that are the objects of the preposition take
prepositional endings.
• The three most important prepositions that
govern the prepositional case are В (in, at) НА
(in, on at), О (about).
Where?
• To indicate WHERE something takes place “in
or at” we use в..
• Unless we’re talking about EVENTS and OPEN
SPACE, in which case, we use на
• Events are location neutral. You can do it
anywhere. Can you do it in the bathroom?
Noun Endings
• NOUNS:
– Singular nouns take –е as their ending.
– Plural nouns take –ах as their ending (sometimes,
predictably, -ях)
– But, remember: -ие, -ия, -ий + -e-ии
Modifier Endings
• Modifiers
– Modifiers modifying masculine and neuter nouns
in the prepositional case take –ом (sometimes,
predictably, -ем)
– Modifiers modifying feminine nouns in the
prepositional case take –ой (sometimes,
predictably, -ей/-ёй)
– Modifiers modifying plural nouns in the
prepositional case take –ых
– Don’t forget spelling rules!
Interrogative Pronouns
• As pronouns, question words like кто and что
also decline (change):
О ком? О чём?
Образцы
• Я живу в (большой дом)
• Stems:
больш- дом• Endings:
• Modifier (-ом), Noun (-е)
• Я живу в большО́М домЕ