Learn Russian

Check out this post from 3 years a go: http://learn-russian.livejournal.com/850039.html
If you skip the initial few comments with their ironic "better drop it, it's too hard" attitude, you soon find a few really useful ones. Alas, some of them rely to an even earlier post in the community, which seems to be deleted by now (probably by the original poster.) But others are more or less helpful.

Yes, we know that the case system in Russian is very difficult, and badly explained in most modern books; have you ever taken Latin? -- Latin case system functions more or less the same way and, as they say, is relatively well explained in most English books.

From:

Hello, thanks a lot for replying and the link. Even though I was expecting something positive, it's still okay :) I've never learn Latin before. I only learn Russian, Chinese and Japanese. English and Malay are my native languages. I'll try my best and thank you again :)

From:

If you think Russian case system is difficult, you should chek Japanese. Yep, there aren't any declension and cases are marked by particles instead of suffixes, but the usage at times seems completely arbitrary. Especially between instrumental and locative, for example. And God help you understanding the difference between thematic and rematic cases — which are BOTH nominative, but have drastically different functions. But I digress.

From:

orrine.livejournal.com

I'm Russian and for me there was no simple way to learn cases, there was no system. We just practiced very much at school and up to this day every time I have to use case names I think of the table with cases we looked at.
Sorry :)

From:

Ah, and I've just wanted to recommend you to look at German. ;) Anyway, you may start from Japanese, its case system is pretty different from Russian, but still it gives you the idea about which case to use in which case. Both thematic and rematic cases map to nominative in Russian, while genitive and accusative are pretty much the same in usage. Still, you should distinguish locative "ni" from dative "ni" — there's no locative in Russian, and the same function is taken by genitive. Also, there's no lative ("ni", "made") and ablative ("kara") cases in Russian. Lative is spread between dative and genitive, while ablative is mapped onto genitive. Instrumental is similar in both languages, but doesn't have locative feature in Russian.

From:

I know ;-) Watashi wa nihongo-o benkyoo shi. Just a bit, but enough to get the grandeur :)
But if one wants A REALLY BAD case system, one may want to try Hungarian or Estonian. Fourteen cases!

From:

annyway.livejournal.com

Estonian case system is much more simple than Russian, believe me. ;)

From:

Well, it's bad, but not THAT bad. People still learn it, and some really can explain. Some books do it, although not each & every book. We need to hear more from the successful foreign learners of Russian and learn more about their perspective. Alas, right now they are sleeping, as it's the night time in the Western hemisphere. While they sleep, the general rule for us native speakers is: If you do not have anything specific/helpful to say, better say nothing ;-))

From:

Well, most grammarians find twelve in Japanese, so that's not that big a step. Inuit, as I've heard, is the worst, with 27 of them. BTW, you've simply murdered a copula here. ;) Pure "shi" is only a middle form, as a phrase-final you should've used "shita/shimashita" for a simple past, or "shite shimashita" for a present perfect.

From:

Kas see on tosi? (sorry, don't have the Ы letter on my keyboard) :))

From:

Yes, that's why I say "a bit, but enough to feel the grandeur". Let's not drift too far from LEARN RUSSIAN here, ok? ;-)

From:

Indeed.

From:

orie.livejournal.com

Hi,

This article is good to understand a concept: http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/case.html

But if you want to use them correctly, you'll have to learn a lot

From:

annyway.livejournal.com

Yes, in regard to Estonian you only need to learn what case to use in what situation and that's not a big deal, because rules are clear and more or less simple (especially if you are not Russian and don't have your own opinion on this point, I mean, sometimes it's difficult to get used to differences: for example, we bye things IN a store, but Estonians bye things FROM a store, etc). But there is no problem with forming cases in Estonian and almost no exceptions.

From:

Thank you for the link :)

From:

I think most books introduce them very slowly, one at a time, so to try to learn them all at once is kind of jumping the gun a bit. At the most elementary level--
nominative - the subject
accusative - the object
dative - the indirect object
prepositional - denotes location
genitive - of/possession; partitive
instrumental - well, the instrument? the means by which the subject completes the action

There are lots of different functions, many of which are governed by prepositions (i.e., к маме -- to your mother's house, not an indirect object, unless actual linguists want to correct me here, even though "маме" is dative), but these are the most basic functions of each case. But basically, cases take on the function of word order and little words, kind of, in English, if that makes sense. I don't know how learning Russian works without at least a tutor, and I would be concerned with using different textbooks and learning materials because like I said, usually they are introduced in language courses in a specific way/order. They are by far not the most challenging part of Russian though, and once you get a better feel for the language, they come pretty naturally.

From:

This table summarizes the meaning of Russian cases pretty well.

Yes, you are right маме is in prepositional case here. The preposition "в" can be used with different cases: with prepositional case to answer "where" and with accusative to answer "where to".
Он идет в школу — He goes to school (accusative).
Он в школе — He is in school (prepositional).

From:

The order of the cases in Russian (as they are taught in school):

Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
Instrumental
Prepositional

From:

vovanium.livejournal.com

It seem to be better if they're learned in conjunction with verbs they're used with. Like this:
[кто -nom.(who)] идёт [чем -ins./по чему (by what)] [из/от чего -gen.(from where)] [к чему -dat./во что -acc. (to where)]
Вася идёт по тропинке из дома в аптеку.
The reason is that case meaning is mostly depend on a verb (or other main word). E. g. instrumentative case often mean instrument (as in забить молотком, вкрутить отвёрткой) but also mean method or manner (плыть брассом, бежать галопом), way (идти полем), or even profession (стать водителем) or prototype (прикинуться мёртвым).
P.s. the number of six is oversimplification of russian case system. There are more case variations (some authors count 13 or so), though some are rare. E. g. some words have distinct locative different from prepositional (на мосту, в лесу, на снегу vs о мосте, о лесе, о снеге)

From:

Thank you for the explanation.
I do really want to learn Russian with a Russian tutor, but unfortunately, there are no Russian classes in my place nor Russians or Russian speaking people here (in my town). Most of them live in Malaysia's capital city Kuala Lumpur. That's why I only rely on textbooks, resources that I gather on the internet, asking Russian friends etc. Anyway, thanks again :)

From:

Do you mean dative??

Yes, I just wanted to give an example of how a case might function in a different way from its usual purpose.

From:

You can find tutors over skype. There are several companies in Russia that specialize in this.

From:

Oh, I haven't re-read my message.
No, it's prepositional case here, not dative; although the inflected form маме corresponds to both dative and prepositional cases.

From:

You can find this Q&A site useful: Russian Language and Usage (http://russian.stackexchange.com/).

From:

Err, how? Я еду к друзьям--that's not prepositional.

From:

mithrilian.livejournal.com

Since you know English, you know about he/him, she/her -- right? Sometimes you use 'he', and other times you use 'him'. 'him' is a case. Through its development modern English sort of "lost" its case system, and he/him is its small remnant. Other languages kept their case system. Russian is not unique in this: Latin and German both have the fully developed case system.

From:

Thanks :)

From: