Рыбак рыбака видит издалека.
It takes one to know one. (saying)
Говорить правду – потерять дружбу.
Flattery makes friends and truth makes enemies. (saying)
Кровати стоят бок о бок.
The beds are side by side. (expression)
Делать из мухи слона.
To make a mountain out of a molehill. (expression)
| Purpose |
The accusative case is the fourth case in Russian. Yet, because of its simplicity and frequency, is often taught second in textbooks. It answers the questions что? and кого? Its purpose is to highlight the direct object in a sentence. If you’re not sure what the direct object is, it is the thing/person on which/whom the action was performed. For more information, please click here.
| Formation |
There is one thing that needs to be immediately addressed. Concerning masculine nouns only, there exists a strange phenomenon. For this case, Russian makes a clear distinction between animate (living) and inanimate (non-living) things. Non-living things have the same ending in the accusative case as they do in the nominative. Living things, however, decline differently and don’t have the same endings. You’ll soon see for yourself below.
To clarify, a living thing is anything that is living such as humans or animals. Plants are not included in this. 🙂 Everything else is non-living.
Now that we’ve established an understanding of this case, let’s move on to its declensions. Spoiler alert: the declensions aren’t that hard!
| Masculine Nouns |
| Inanimate masculine nouns don’t change! | дом (house) ключ (key) трамвай (tram) | no change – no change – no change – |
| consonant + a | человек (person) друг (friend) | человека – друга – |
| –ь becomes –я | учитель (teacher) приятель (acquaintance) | учителя – приятеля – |
…This animate and non-animate distinction is only made in the accusative. In all other cases no distinction is made!
| Feminine Nouns |
| –а becomes –у | жена (wife) девушка (girl) книга (book) | жену – девушку – книгу – |
| –я becomes –ю | линия (line) неделя (week) | линию – неделю – |
| –ь remains –ь no change | мать (mother) дочь (daughter) | no change – no change – |
| Neuter Nouns |
| Neuter nouns don’t change! | море (sea) место (place) время (time) | no change – no change – no change – |
…Actually, animate neuter nouns decline differently, but they are so rare, that it’s not even worth looking into that declension.
And there is it! Not much declension in this lesson. See how painless that was? We learned a new case almost effortlessly. Little by little we’re mastering the case system.
| Last Edit: 12/15/2025. |
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