#teaching russian

Пожалуйста! И конечно! Сначала, "по-русски." No "й" when you're saying "po" something. (yes "й" when you're using it as an adjective, like i like "русский" yaziyk, but I speak "по-русски") then tebe ne nravitca "мой" yaziyk. You have "moya/moy" but like I went over earlier, adjectives take the gender of what they are describing, so regardless of your gender, "language" is masculine, so "moy yaziyk." Then "музыку" not "музыкa" because it should be in accusative. And then finally "моих друзьей." The adjective is because it needs to agree with the noun, as I said before in number, case and gender. Druz'ya is plural, which looks the same regardless of gender, so the adjective needs to be plural. It also needs to be accusative, so it's 'моих.' Don't worry too much about 'druz'yey,' it's irregular.

But yeah, regardless of your gender, when you say something is yours, "my" agrees with the noun, so whether you're identifying as male, female, agender, genderfluid, whatever- "мой язык, моя собака, мои друзья"

As far as the endings, -aya, -ya, -a: -aya is for adjectives. Adjectives always come in masculine, feminine, neuter, and plural forms, so you just match the right form to the noun. masculine adjectival endings can be "ый" "ий" or "ой" -it just depends on the adjective. (Например: красивый, хороший, другой) However, feminine forms of adjectives are "aya" across the board. (Красивая, хорошая, другая).

However feminine nouns can end in -a or -ya. What's important to note here is to recognize that russian vowels come in pairs: one vowel that softens the consonant before it, and one that doesn't. You can think of it like "Я" is just and "a" with a "ь" hidden INSIDE it. The same is true of the other pairs: ё-о, и-ы, е-э, ю-у. This is mostly a pronunciation thing that's kind of complex, but it's important mostly because it affects how you decline something. If a consonant has been made soft by the ending (the word ends in -ya not -a), that has to be maintained. So "Счастья" in accusative is "Счастью" but "книга" in accusative is "книгу." The pairs go together. This part is kind of confusing, and I wouldn't worry too much about having it down, since it mostly affects pronunciation, and until you have declining down, it won't make a difference. Just something to have in mind when you think about Russian vowels that isn't necessarily intuitive. (probably the sort of thing Russians do automatically and don't even realize)

Although...ugh I don't want to get even more complicated, I realize this is a lot. I just made like a blanket statements about adjectives, but there's also "short form adjectives" ...I would just not worry about them for the moment. You don't really need to understand them to use them. "должен" is an example of a short form adjective, so basically that's why it's gender has to agree with the subject (needing is describing you, YOU need to do something). But don't worry about it. Just know that that's why its gender changes, even though it looks like a noun.

And to the last question, no. It doesn't mean nouns don't decline. Basically, nouns can be described in three ways: number, case, and gender. Their gender is fixed. Number depends on whether you're talking about one or a bunch of something (russians have a weird number system in terms of whether they think something is singular or plural, I might make a separate post about it). A word's "case" is how it is declined. So a word can be singular, feminine, and nominative. It will never change gender, it WILL change case, depending on how it's being used in the sentence (subject, object, indirect object, etc.)

Case 'scription

Song jam of the moment

The Instrumental case describes the instrument with which the action was carried out. It's used for the concepts of "With" or "By means of"

Singular Masculine Nouns:

If ends in consonant, add "ом" If ends in unstressed "ж ц ч ш щ" add "ем" Replace "й" with "ем", or if stressed, "ём"

Singular Feminine Nouns:

If ends in "a" replace with "ой" If, after taking off the "a" there is a "ж ц ч ш or "щ", replace with "ей" If ends in "я" replace with "ей", unless stressed, then "ёй" If ends in "ь" replace with "ью"

Singular Neuter Nouns:

add "м"

Plural:

Look at the last letter of the word in its original (Nominative) form and:

All consonants: add "ами"

Replace "a" and "o" with "ами"

Case Description~

The Genitive case is one of the most used cases, next to Nominative, Accusative, and Prepositional, so, knowing this is good. c:

Forming rules~

Singular

Masculine: (These are also the rules that are used for forming animate masculine nouns in the Accusative case) Masculine singular nouns that end in a consonant: add "а" Masculine singular nouns that end in "й": replace "й" with "я" Masculine singular nouns that end in "ь": replace "ь" with "я"

Feminine: Feminine singular nouns that end in an "а": replace "а" with "ы" Feminine singular nouns that end in a "я": replace "я" with "и" Feminine singular nouns that end in a "ь": replace "ь" with "и"

Neuter: Neuter singular nouns that end in an "о": replace "о" with "а" Neuter singular nouns that end in an "е": replace "е" with "я"

Plural

Maculine: (Also the rules for forming plural in the Accusative case for animate masculine nouns) If a masculine noun ends in "ж,ч,ш,щ," or "ь" add "ей" If a masculine nouns ends in "й,"  or a stressed "ц" add "ев" All other masculine nouns get "ов" added to them~

Feminine: If a feminine noun ends in "а", then drop the "a", and that's all. (ex. звёзда is Star in the Nom. case. звёзд is Stars in the Gen. case.) If a feminine noun ends with a constant then "я", replace the "я" with "ь" (ex. тётя is Aunt in the Nom. case. тёть is Aunts in the Gen. case.) If a feminine noun ends with a vowel then "я", replace the "я" with "й" (ex. змея is Snake in the Nom. case. змей is Snakes in the Gen. case.) If a feminine nouns ends in a "ь", add "ей" (ex. жизнь is Life in the Nom case. жизней is Lives in the Gen. case.)

~Note: If a feminine word ends in a double consonant it is common for a vowel (о, е) to be inserted for easy pronunciation. (марка - марок, англичанка - англичанок, девушка - девушек)

Case Descriptions. c:

So, for forming the Dative case, rules are as follows:

For singular masculine nouns:

If noun ends in consonant- add "у"

If ends in "й"- replace with "ю"

If ends in "ь"- replace with "ю"

For singular feminine nouns:

If ends in "а"- replace with "е"

If ends in "я"- replace with "е"

If ends in "ь"- replace with "и"

If ends in "ия"- replace with "ии"

For singular neuter nouns:

If ends in "о"- replace with "у"

If ends in "е"- replace with "ю"

For plural Dative plural: (Letters that affect normal spell changes: Г, К, Х, Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ)

For masculine nouns that end in a consonant: add "ам"

For words that end in "а" or "о"- replace with "ам"

For words that end in "е"- replace with "ям", unless Г, К, Х, Ж, Ч, Ш, or Щ is behind, then change to "ам"

Omg I haven't done this in so long.

Case description~

Letters that affect normal spell changes: Г, К, Х, Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ

Animate and Inanimate nouns really come into play here. (Animate= things that are alive and can move, Inanimate=plants, and things that aren't alive and cannot move.)

- Accusative, singular

For forming singular masculine words in the Accusative case, the changes are as follows:

For inanimate masculine nouns, there is no spell change.

ex. "нож" is knife in the Nom. case, and is inanimate, therefore in the Acc. case, is does not change.

For animate masculine nouns that end in a consonant, add an "a"

"тигр" is tiger in the Nom. case, and is animate, therefore in the Acc. case, it would be "тигра"

For animate masculine nouns that end in "й", replace "й", with "я"

I don't know any words that are animate and end in "й." DD:

For animate masculine nouns that end in "ь", replace "ь" with "я"

"Медведь" is bear in the Nom. case, and is animate, therefore in the Acc. case, it would be "Медведя" Keep in mind that a noun in this situation and has a Spelling Rule letter (above) before the "ь", you would replace "ь" with "а" instead of "я."

Forming the Accusative for feminine words, the changes are as follows:

For both animate and inanimate nouns ending in "а", replace "а" with "у"

For both animate and inanimate nouns ending in "я", replace "я" with "ю" If ends with a Spelling Rule letter, "я" goes to "у" instead.

For both animate and inanimate nouns ending in "ь", there is no change

Forming the Accusative for neuter words, the changes are as follow:

No changes, because almost all neuter nouns are inanimate.

- Accusative, plural

For accusative plural inanimate nouns, the rules are the same as the Nominative plural. Nom. Plural Rules

Case descriptions ^^^ If you need to refresh the use(s) of each case.

Ok, so with each of the 6 cases, there're specific spelling changes and prepositions used to show a specific meaning. But, while changing a word using Case rules, there are seven letters that change the normal letter change. (Г, К, Х, Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ)

Nominative

For singular Nominative words, there is no spelling change, because it's the word in its original, unaltered form.

For plural though, there are, and is shown as follows:

Masculine nouns

If ends in consonant - add 'ы' - unless Г, К, Х, Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ, then add 'и' (ex. Слон (elephant) - Слоны (elephants) Петух (rooster) - Петухи (roosters))

If ends in 'й' - replace 'й' with 'и' (ex. музей (museum) - музеи (museums))

If ends in a 'ь' - replace 'ь' with 'и' (ex. словарь (dictionary) - словари (dictionaries)

Having a Case system in a language allows for freedom of word order. The Russian language has 6 different cases.

Nominative case:

The Nominative case is used for the subject of a sentence. In the sentence “I love her”, the word “I” is the subject. The nominative case is the dictionary form for nouns. Nominative case is also used when saying "I am -noun-" where both "I" and "-noun-" would be in the nominative case (ex. Я мальчик "I am a boy"), and when saying "Это -noun-." (This is a -noun-.) -noun- would be in the nominative case.

Accusative case:

To form simple sentences like "I want a dog", you need to use the accusative case. The Accusative case is used for the object of a sentence, in this case the word "dog". The only time we use the accusative case in English is with pronouns. We use "me" instead of "I" and "him" instead of "he", "us" instead of "we", "them" instead of "they", "her" instead of "she". The Russian language, though, uses the case for all nouns.

The accusitive case is also used after the prepositions "в" (to, into) and "на" (on, to) to indicate motion to something. (ex. Я хожу в магазин/Я езжу на стадион. I go to the store/I go to the stadium. "store" and "stadium" are in the accusative case because of the motion verb and the preposition "в"/"на".)

Animate vs Inanimate:

An "animate" noun is something that is alive and can move by itself. People or animals (plants are not considered in this category). An "inanimate" noun is a non-living object. If an animate noun is the object of the sentence and is plural, there are rules of how to show animate accusative plural accordingly.

Dative case:

The Dative case is used in Russian for the indirect object of a sentence. In the sentence "Adam gave flowers to Anna", the word "Anna" should be in the dative case. The indirect object is normally the person who receives the direct object. (ex. "Он мне давал собаку." He gave me a dog.)

Genitive case:

The primary use of the Genitive case is to show possession. In English we often indicate this with an apostrophe (‘s), or the word “of”. Grammatically, the definition of possession may be larger than we are used to thinking of in English. In Russian the possessor always follows the object it possesses. (This is the reverse of the normal English ‘s).

For example in the sentence "this is Adam's dog", the word "Adam" is in the genitive case. But to convert it to Russian you should think of it like "the dog of Adam’s", placing the possessor after the object. (ex. Это собака Адама. "This is Adam's dog." Adam is in the Genitive case.)

You should also use the genitive case in most cases where you would use the word "of" in English. (ex. City of Deceit, "deceit" would be in the Genitive case.)

You should also use the genitive case for words, where in English you could place "some" or "any" before them.

The Genitive case is also commonly used after negation. (ex. без него. "without him." Him is in the Genitive case.)

Instrumental case

The Instrumental case is used to indicate how something is done. In English the words "by" or "with" are used for this. (the preposition "с" or "со" + the word in the instrumental case is used for this.) You would use the instrumental in a sentence like "I'm going with you."

It represent the "instrument" of the action carried out.

(ex. Я с ним в кино ездил. I went to the movies with them.)

Prepositional case

In Russian the Prepositional case is used after the prepositions "about" (о/об), "in" (в/во), and "at" (на).

(ex. Мы говорим о политике. We are talking about politics. Я не знаю ничего об этом. I don't know anything about this.

Я в комнате. I'm in the room. Есть много звёзд во вселенной. There're a lot of stars in the universe.