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[tangledweave.livejournal.com]

I know this is bad etiquette but I'm desperate.

Okay, I have an assignment on the accusative case and I left it to the last moment and my text book seems to be giving me the run around.

Here's what I think I understand:

If the object is feminine and singular than the accusative case is у (generally).

If the object is male what is the accusative case? and for plural? and my text book is also telling me something about how non-animate items have the accusative case that is unchanged from the nominative.

please help

Comments

[yay4pikas.livejournal.com]

According to my textbook:

For nonanimate nouns which are masculine or plural, the accusative is the same as the nominative.

For neuter nouns, the ending is the same as nominative (presumably since all neuter nouns are inanimate).

For in/animate feminine nouns, the ending is -у for nouns ending in -а in the nominative and -ю for nouns ending in -я in the nominative.

Animate masculine and plural nouns are like the genitive case which, if your textbook is like mine, you haven't learned yet. Lucky you.

Adjectives follow the same pattern: -ая becomes -ую and -яя becomes -юю for feminine adjectives, and so on.

[kniazhna.livejournal.com]

For masculine - if it ends with a vowel in Nominative case, then in Acc. it will end with an "y". If it ends with anything other than that, then the form doesn't change.

With plural of any gender - nothing changes.

Non-animate items have nothing to do with the case. It all depends on the endings of the word.

With feminine - it's either "у" or "ю" depending on the "softness" of the original ending vowel (а/я). (Same thing for masculine words ending with these vowels).

[commiegirl.livejournal.com]

If the object is feminine and singular you have the -у ending. Example: Я вижу книгу. (I read the book).

If the object is masculine and an object, not a person or an animal (that's what they mean by inanimate), it is the same as the nominative. Example: Я вижу телефон. (I see the telephone).

If the object is masculine and is a person or an animal (it moves, it's animate), the ending is like the genitive for that noun. For example: Я вижу мальчика. (I see the boy).

The plural accusatives are the same was the nominative case for all genders.

Anybody correct me if I'm wrong. I hope I explained clearly. :-) Textbooks can be confusing sometimes.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Oops! The plural accusative of animate masculine nouns is not the same as the nominative.

In fact, it's downright evil.

[commiegirl.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, that's true! I remember that now. Stupid -ов. :-)

[commiegirl.livejournal.com]

and -ей and the other five million.

[commiegirl.livejournal.com]

Wait, that's "I SEE the book" up there, of course. :-)

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Feel free to ask me to clarify if I left something out that you need or if I'm being confusing.

SINGULAR

Feminine: -у
Neuter: -о
Masculine : -а if animate, -ø if inanimate.
Feminine 2: -ø

As you can see, masculine nouns are differentiated by whether they're inanimate or not in the accusative. This is the only place in Russian declension where this happens.

You can also see that the animate masculine accusative ending is the same as the masculine genitive, and the inanimate masculine accusative endings is the same as the masculine nominative.

PLURAL

Feminine: -ы
Neuter: -а
Masculine: -ø/-ей/-ов if animate, -ы if inanimate
Feminine 2: -и

The plural functions the same way as the singular in regards to the masculine: if it's animate, it uses the genitive ending, and if it's inanimate, it uses the nominative.

The genitive plural/accusative ending is very tricky. Not going to go into it unless you ask.

And don't forget to apply spelling/phonological rules when declining. :)

*What do I mean about Feminine 2? This is what some textbooks call third declension: feminine nouns that end in -ø in the nominative. Some linguists prefer to call this declension the feminine declension (and the others other confusing things) because it's the only declension that contains only nouns of one gender.

[tangledweave.livejournal.com]

just so I'm sure, do you mean у and ю when you say genetive?

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

No, not at all. No nouns have an -y ending in the genitive.

Feminine 2

[yers.livejournal.com]

animate/inanimate applies in the plural (only the plural) accusative of Feminine 2

so it's расставляю сети, but боюсь рысей

Re: Feminine 2

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the correction.

Re: Feminine 2

[yers.livejournal.com]

Oops, I messed up my examples because бояться takes the genitive in the first place. But that doesn't change the point.

P.S.

[yers.livejournal.com]

Hey, you seem to altogether leave out feminine animate plural. it's -ø where the inanimate is -ы.
Султан любил своих жён и свои сабли.

Did You Know: of all Slavic languages, only the Eastern group distinguishes between animate and inanimate feminine nouns. And Poles call us patriarchal. :)

Re: P.S.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I'm just forgetting things all over the place today. I'm tempted to delete my original comment and rewrite it.

But that said, I hope her teacher hasn't thrust her into genitive plural declension unprepared. It's easy if you're given a good explanation of it, but I've yet to see a textbook that has one.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

P.S. This isn't poor etiquette. It gives us something to do. ;)