Learn how to use the instrumental 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 last lesson, we learned how to express possession by putting nouns in the genitive case. In this lesson we will learn the instrumental case, which usually marks the method of the action, like the English preposition "with" or “by means of”. Why is it called instrumental? Because it represents the ‘instrument’ that was used to carry out the action. |
| Let me give you an example: |
| Писать письмо ручкой. “To write the letter with a pen.” In this sentence we have two nouns, the first one “письмо” meaning “letter”. It is in the accusative case which you already know, and the 2nd one “ручкой” meaning “with a pen” put in the instrumental case. See, it is an instrument for writing. |
| Now let’s get down to the endings of nouns in the instrumental case. |
| Masculine nouns ending with consonants will have the ending- ОМ in the instrumental case. For example: |
| Факс - “Fax” becomes Факсом. |
| Отправить факсом. “Send by fax.” |
| If the masculine noun ends with “Й” or “Ь” we replace it with “ЕМ”: |
| Учитель - Teacher becomes Учителем. |
| Чай - Tea becomes Чаем |
| Both masculine and feminine nouns that end with “A” get the ending “Ой” in the instrumental case: For example: |
| Папа - “Father” becomes Папой. |
| Мама - “Mother“ becomes Мамой. |
| The “Я” ending of feminine nouns should be replaced with “Ей”, for example: |
| Неделя - “Week” becomes Неделей. |
| Станция - “Station” becomes Станцией. |
| But be careful! If the feminine nouns end with “Ь” we simply have to add the vowel “Ю” to the noun, |
| for example- |
| Ночь - “Night” becomes Ночью |
| Дверь - “Door” becomes Дверью |
| Neuter nouns ending with “О” and “Е” also stay the same – we simply add a consonant “М” |
| Окно - Window becomes окном. |
| Здание - Building becomes зданием. |
| As you might already notice, not all nouns can be an instrument for an action. Some nouns are put in the instrumental case to identify the originator of an action, especially in sentences with passive voice or which specify your occupation. |
| Ужин, приготовленный мамой. “Dinner prepared by mother.“ |
| Папа работает учителем. “Father is working as a teacher.” |
| Usually the instrumental case is used after the following prepositions: |
| за - “behind,” между - “between,” над - “above” |
| перед - “in front of” or “before, под - “under,” с - “with” |
| And after the following verbs – быть, находиться - “to be”, называться - “to be called”, становиться - “to become”, увлекаться - “to be interested in,” восхищаться - “to admire”. |
| Let’s now have a look at some examples of the instrumental case with these prepositions and verbs. |
| Я нахожусь перед зданием. “I am in front of the building.” |
| Я увлекаюсь спортом “I am interested in sports.” |
| Я - за станцией. “I am behind the station.” |
| The words “зданием, спортом, and станцией” are in the instrumental case after the verbs “нахожусь or увлекаюсь” and prepositions “перед or за”. I hope you’re following this! |
| Finally, let`s take a look at personal pronouns in the instrumental case. They are quite often used with the preposition “C” or “CO” (meaning “with”) |
| я - Мной - “Me” |
| ты - Тобой - “You” |
| он - Ним - “Him” |
| она - Ней - “Her” |
| мы - Нами - “Us” |
| вы - Вами - “You” (plural) |
| они - Ими - “Them” |
| For example: |
| Я разговариваю с Вами. “I am talking with you.” |
| Он пойдет с Тобой. “He goes with you.” |
| Good job, everyone! That’s it for this lesson. I know it’s a lot to absorb but take your time and you’ll see how helpful it will be in the future. Next time we’ll learn our last case, which we already mentioned a while ago – the prepositional case. See you soon in our next Русский язык за три минуты lesson. Пока Пока |
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