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hi guys.

i know this has probably been asked a bajillion times, but i simply can't understand it: the cases.

no matter how much effort i put into learning them, i can't do it. i never know which one to use in which situations and it's so frustrating. i've researched them a lot, but i think i'm just dumb.

can someone please explain them to me?

thanks in advance.

Comments

Alas.

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

You just have to memorise them I'm afraid. No kings' roads here. You're not dumb! You just have to read and listen and converse with people, lots and lots.

[oryx_and_crake]

The actor is normally in nominative case.
The subject is in accusative. E.g. "Мальчик видит книгу" - "A boy sees a book." - мальчик is in nominative, книга is in accusative.

A tool is normally in instrumental.
"Я копаю землю лопатой." - "I dig soil with a spade." Лопата is in instrumental.

A place, a building and a vehicle will be in prepositional (and they ALWAYS require a preposition, too, hence the name of the case)
в доме, в школе, на площади, на машине (in the house, at school, in a square, by car) are in prepositional

Dative means giving to someone (hence the name: дательный, from дать to give)
Мальчик подарил девочке цветы. The boy gave the girl some flowers. Here девочка is in dative and flowers, being a subject, are in accusative (see above).

Genitive is used in different cases, one of them is like that: "У меня нет денег." I have no money. Note that in "У меня есть деньги" money will be in the accusative. Another use of genitive is when someone is giving birth to someone ((hence the name: родительный, from родить to give birth)
Женщина родила сына. (сын is in genitive)

This is in no way complete but will give you a general idea.

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

To understand the use of case, you really have to understand grammar. If you know what subject, direct object, indirect object, and things like that are in English, it will help you a lot. If you don't know this grammar stuff already, look it up in English first, and then you can relate the Russian cases.

[miram.livejournal.com]

Try memorizing typical word combinations with the most common words, making a point of the cases used. E.g. благодарю (кого/что > Acc.) тебя, дарю подарок (кому/чему > Dat.) тебе, &c. This helped me a lot with Latin cases. And not only cases, of course.

[madrumos.livejournal.com]

I like your nice basic explanation, just one small caveat:
In У меня есть деньги the word "money" is in the nominative, not the accusative. This makes sense because it's not actually the object of a verb (there is no verb). Of course, literally translated, the phrase essentially means "Near me [there is] moneyю"
An example of the nominative not accusative: У меня есть кошка. У меня газета.

[satis-verborum.livejournal.com]

The subject is in accusative.
Here девочка is in dative and flowers, being a subject, are in accusative

You mean object, I think, not subject:)

[radiodead.livejournal.com]

And how do you think what is the accusative of деньги?

[oryx_and_crake]

I am not sure, maybe. I mean someone or something to which something is done and not someone who is doing that :-)

[oryx_and_crake]

It is also деньги, as in "Я вижу деньги."

[oryx_and_crake]

Right. In "У меня есть деньги" деньги is in nominative. In "Я вижу деньги" they are in accusative.

And for the English speakers: please note that деньги is plural! E.g. "На столе лежат деньги" as opposed to "The money IS on the table."

[radiodead.livejournal.com]

Surely! So that in "У меня есть деньги" a word "деньги" is in accusative.

[oryx_and_crake]

Er, no. If you replace деньги with something else (e.g. "У меня есть книга") you will see at once that nominative is required here.

[radiodead.livejournal.com]

Right. In "У меня есть деньги" деньги is in nominative. In "Я вижу деньги" they are in accusative.
------------
Really? In both statements "деньги" answers to question "what?"
What's the difference?

[oryx_and_crake]

::answers to question "what?"

so what?
Do you see the difference between "У меня есть книга" and "Я вижу книгу"? In both cases it is "what", e.g. "I see what?"

[radiodead.livejournal.com]

You see there can be plenty of exclusions in colloquial Russian. Right now i can't remember anything except this funny one:

"Вы хочете песен? Их есть у меня!" ("Их" is not nominative, anyway)

I know this is "not good" to speak this way, but people often use wrong cases in non-formal speech, which is not right, but... :)

[radiodead.livejournal.com]

Ok. Thank you. I simply forgot all these school things.
I remember the special table which we had to draw at the Russian lessons. That was very useful.

[oryx_and_crake]

There are NO exceptions. "Их есть у меня!" is jocular, not serious. You would do a very bad service to Russian learners if you give them such misleading examples.

[gera.livejournal.com]

As far as I can judge (being a native speaker) this should be the single most difficult aspect of the Russian language for a foreign learner.

I believe that you can gain a basic understanding from examples; from then on - it's just a matter of experience (practice).

[madrumos.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind that very often (but not always), the case you should use will be indicated in the question asked. This doesn't help of course, when no one asks you a question and you just have to talk, but hey. Cf:
В каком доме живёшь? Here, we look at the question word какой and see the prepositional case with a regular masculine ending -ом. Therefore, you would also answer in the prepositional with a similar ending for an adjective:
Я живу в этом зелёном доме.

When learning a verb, take note not just of how it conjugates, what it means, and whether it is perfective or imperfective, but also what case(s) it takes.
дать что кому (accusative for object, dative for indirect object)
видеть кого (accusative for object)
писать что кому чем (accusative object, dative indirect object, instrumental for what you are using)
For example: Я пишу письмо ему ручкой. This sentence sounds kinda funny in Russian, but it is correct. The nouns here correspond with the question words in the phrase above.

Study, study, study. Memorize, practice, make sure people correct you. Keep getting it explained until you find something that makes sense to you. Study English grammar as well. Read a lot, and identify each case used and why it is being used rather than another.

[idealforcolors.livejournal.com]

i've been studying russian for two years and 90% of the time i speak, i get everything except the nominative and accusative wrong. here's to hoping it's a matter of time and practice :)

[gjertsen.livejournal.com]

I think one of the main reasons case languages are so hard for english speakers is that we usually aren't taught the grammer of our own language --we learn it by rote (at least in the US in my lifetime). Also, in english nouns almost never change when they are in a different case, though it's a germanic language, and so, essentially, has cases too. But the same basic sentence structure applies. I mean, if you understand why you say "To whom did you give the book?" (in correct english) instead of "who did you give the book to?" and why it would be very strange to say "Whom is in the room?" then you understand the dative case versus the nominative...Of course, like most americans, I usually say "who did you give the book to?" ;)

[cheetr.livejournal.com]

the subject does to the object.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I would like to ask you not to give misleading examples to people. Those of us who studied English were taught that it was "he doesn't" we should use, not "he don't," though there's plenty of English speakers who used wrong form. The Russian learners here need to master the normative Russian first. The question was about simple primary rules of general speech, not about the twists and switches of street talk.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Come on, if you "forget your school things," how valuable you think your contribution to this community is? Why bother yourself writing here if you have nothing to say?

[constpd.livejournal.com]

Женщина родила сына. (сын is in genitive)
Oops. Родить (кого?, что?). Here сын is a direct object, the verb родить is transitive, so it's accusative, not genitive.