Russian has six cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental and prepositional. A case is the form a noun, adjective or pronoun takes to show its role in the sentence. Each case answers a question:
- Nominative — who? what? (the subject, who's doing the action)
- Genitive — of whom? of what? (possession, absence, quantity)
- Dative — to whom? to what? (the recipient)
- Accusative — whom? what? (the direct object of the action)
- Instrumental — with whom? with what? (the tool, the company, the means)
- Prepositional — about whom? where? (location, topic of discussion)
This guide gives you the big picture: what each case is for, how to recognize it, the mistakes English speakers make, and where to go next. The endings and exercises for each case are in the dedicated lessons, linked along the way.
❓ What a case is (and why Russian has six)
A case-based language encodes the role of a word in its form, rather than only in its position. English mostly does the opposite: it keeps the noun the same and uses word order and prepositions to mark the role.
Compare:
- English: "Anna gives a book to Mary." → word order + the preposition "to" tell you who's the subject and who's the recipient.
- Russian: "Анна даёт книгу Марии." → it's the ending of each word that tells you. Анна is nominative (subject), книгу is accusative (direct object), Марии is dative (recipient).
English actually kept a trace of this in its pronouns: he sees, I see him, his book. Same person, three forms, chosen by role. Russian does this with almost every noun, adjective and pronoun. Use it as an intuition, not as a one-to-one match: him is accusative in Я вижу его ("I see him") but dative in Я даю ему книгу ("I give him a book").
The upshot: in Russian, word order is much freer. Марии Анна даёт книгу is still understandable (the emphasis shifts, but the meaning holds).
So how many cases does Russian have? Textbooks and learner grammars teach six, and that's the system you need. Some linguistic descriptions set apart a few leftover forms or special uses; you'll pick those up later, word by word, not as extra cases to learn.
📐 The 6 cases, one by one
1. The nominative — who? what?
This is the case of the subject of the sentence. The one doing the action. It's also the form the word takes in the dictionary — the "default" form.
- Дом большой. → The house is big.
- Мама работает. → Mum is working.
- Кот спит. → The cat is sleeping.
If you can replace the word with "he / she / it" as the subject, you're in the nominative.
2. The genitive — of whom? of what?
One of the most frequent cases in Russian. It does 3 big jobs:
- Possession: книга брата (the brother's book)
- Absence or negation: У меня нет времени (I don't have any time)
- Quantity: стакан воды (a glass of water)
Rule of thumb: when English uses "of" or the possessive "'s", the genitive is often a good first guess. Not always: "think of your work" is думать о работе, with о + the prepositional.
Endings and exercises: The genitive: possession and absence.
3. The dative — to whom? to what?
The case of the recipient. The one you give to, write to, talk to.
- Я звоню маме. → I'm calling mum.
- Подарок другу. → A gift for a friend.
- Помоги брату. → Help your brother.
The dative is also used to express age (мне 30 лет = "I'm 30", literally "to me, 30 years") and how you feel (мне холодно = "I'm cold").
Endings and exercises: The dative: to whom, liking and age.
4. The accusative — whom? what? (the direct object)
The case of the direct object. What the action is acting upon.
- Я читаю книгу. → I'm reading a book.
- Она любит кота. → She loves the cat.
- Мы смотрим фильм. → We're watching a film.
Key subtlety — animacy: for masculine nouns ending in a consonant, -й or -ь, the singular accusative is identical to the nominative when the word refers to a thing (фильм → фильм), but identical to the genitive when it refers to a person or an animal (кот → кота). English has no equivalent rule.
Nouns ending in -а / -я, feminine or masculine, have their own ending in -у / -ю, whether they refer to a thing or a living being (книга → книгу, мама → маму, папа → папу).
Neuter nouns keep the nominative form in the singular (окно → окно). In the plural, animacy matters for every gender: that's covered in the plural in all cases.
Endings and exercises: The accusative: direct object and direction.
5. The instrumental — with what? with whom?
The case of the tool, the company and the means.
- Я пишу ручкой. → I'm writing with a pen. (the tool)
- Я иду с другом. → I'm walking with a friend. (company)
- Я еду поездом. → I'm travelling by train. (the means)
Careful with "by car": Russian usually says на машине, with на + the prepositional, not the instrumental.
The instrumental also expresses what someone is in a role or job: Я работаю учителем ("I work as a teacher").
Endings and exercises: The instrumental: with whom, with what, profession.
6. The prepositional — where? about what?
As its name suggests, it never stands alone: always after a preposition (в, на, о/об, при).
- Я живу в Москве. → I live in Moscow. (where?)
- Книга на столе. → The book is on the table. (where?)
- Мы говорим о работе. → We're talking about work. (about what?)
This is often the easiest case to spot because the preposition signals ahead that it's coming.
Endings and exercises: The prepositional case: talking about something.
