Learn how to use the genitive case
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| Привет Всем. С Вами Светлана. Hi everybody! I’m Svetlana. |
| Welcome to RussianPod101.com’s Русский язык за три минуты. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Russian. |
| In the previous lesson, we learned how to put Russian nouns and pronouns into the dative case. Why do we need it? Because we need to know who or what we do actions for. In this lesson, we`ll learn the Genitive case which is used to indicate the belonging of one object to another, or possession. The English equivalent for this case is the preposition “Of”, or an apostrophe s (‘s), for example key of the car or car’s key |
| Here is an example: |
| In order to say “Teacher’s book” or |
| “Book of the teacher,” in Russian you say |
| Книга учителя. |
| учителя means “teacher” put in genitive case. The dictionary (nominative) form for this word is Учитель. |
| See, we are putting the noun Учитель into genitive case to express his possession of the book. |
| Nouns in the genitive case usually answer the questions “of what” or “of whom”. Remember to use this form for the *owner*, not the owned noun. [a]*Teacher’s* book. *Car’s* key. |
| Let’s take a look at how we should modify the endings of nouns in the genitive case. Masculine nouns which end with a consonant need an “A” vowel. For example – Телефон друга. This means “Friend’s phone.” The word Друг in its dictionary form ends with a consonant, that’s why we add “A” in the genitive case. Друга. If a masculine noun ends with the letter “Й” or “Ь” , we will replace it with “Я” |
| Чай - “Tea” becomes Чая |
| Пакетик чая. “A pack of tea.” |
| Писатель- “Writer.” becomes Писателя. |
| Автограф писателя. “Writer’s signature.” |
| Feminine nouns ending with “Ь” and “А” will have their endings replaced with “И” and “Ы” respectively. For example: |
| Соль- “Salt” becomes Соли. |
| Щепотка соли. “Pinch of salt” |
| Вода - “Water” becomes Воды. |
| Стакан воды. “Glass of water.” |
| Moving on, we have neuter nouns in the genitive case. The ending “O” will be replaced with “A” and the ending “E” with “Я”: |
| Кресло - “Chair” becomes Кресла. |
| Подушка для кресла. “Chair’s cushion“ |
| Здание - “Building” becomes Здания. |
| Крыша здания. “Roof of the building.” |
| Great job! |
| However the genitive case of Russian nouns isn’t only used to express possession. It is also used after the following prepositions: без “without”, для “for”, до “until”, из “from”, из-за “because of,” кроме “besides”, с “with”, у “at”, около “at”, вдоль “along”, and so on. |
| For example: |
| Из-за дождя “Because of the rain” |
| Без воды “without water” |
| Для учителя “for teacher” |
| У здания “at the building” |
| The genitive case is also used after certain verbs. Here they are – просить “ask”, искать “look for”, ждать “wait for”, достигать “achieve”, желать “wish”, бояться “be afraid of”. |
| And here are some examples: |
| Искать друга “Look for a friend” |
| Ждать учителя “Wait for a teacher” |
| Просить воды “Ask for water” |
| Excellent! Let’s finish up by going over the genitive forms of the pronouns: |
| Меня - “Me” |
| Тебя - “You” (informal) |
| Него - “Him” |
| Неё - “Her” |
| Нас - “Us” |
| Вас - “You” (formal, or plural) |
| Их - “Them” |
| Here are some examples: |
| Без него “Without him” |
| Бояться их “Be afraid of them” |
| Для неё “For her” |
| Great job on that one. I am really proud of you all! We learned so many new things today! Besides the genitive case itself, we touched upon new vocab, verbs, and prepositions. We will continue our discoveries in the next Русский язык за три минуты lesson, where we will take a look at the very interesting instrumental case. So, stay motivated. I know you can do it! See you soon. |
| Пока пока |
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