Lesson 7. Doling out the lessons now.
In this lesson we’ll be tackling a new case – the genitive. Thus far, in this lesson series, we’ve only learned one case – the nominative.
I. The Genitive Case
This is the second case, the nominative being the first. We’re not going to learn the cases in their proper order, because some cases are more crucial, trickier than others.
The nominative case’s function is to highlight the subject of a sentence. The genitive‘s is to highlight possession. It also has many other uses – it’s a heavily used case; those will be explained in later lessons.
Do you remember? The nominative case answers the questions кто? and что?
Well, the genitive case answers the questions кого? and чего?
…The nominative form is the base form, thus in the examples we’ll see the nominative form first, then the genitive.
| masculine |
| to a consonant, add –а |
| дом = дома стол = стола |
| replace –й with –я |
| трамвай = трамвая |
| feminine |
| replace –а with –ы |
| сестра = сестры вода = воды |
| replace –я with –и |
| неделя = недели семья = семьи |
| neuter |
| replace –о with –а |
| окно = окна озеро = озера |
| replace –е with –я |
| море = моря поле = поля |
To use cases correctly, you have to practice them a lot. This is arguably the most crucial thing to speaking Russian completely.
Now we can say what belong to whom. Often, the genitive is used to express the English ‘s. Let’s practice a little.
| nominative | genitive |
| Это дом. This is a house. | Это дом папы. This is dad’s house. |
| Это вода. This is water. | Это вода озера. This is the lake’s water. |
| Это окно. This is a window. | Это окно дома. This is the house’s window. |
The good news is that you now know 2 of the 6 cases in Russian. Only 4 more to go!
II. Question Word чей
Let’s observe a new word: чей? This means whose? We can correctly answer this question with the genitive case. First, we’ll learn a key construction.
Чей это дом?
Whose house is this?
Also, it agrees in gender.
| nom. он | fem. она | neut. оно | plur. они |
| чей | чья | чьё | чьи |
More gender agreement, and, of course, это has re-emerged!
–Чей это дом? –Это дом брата.
Whose house is this? -This is my brother’s house.
–Чья это книга? –Это книга сестры.
Whose book is this? -This is my sister’s book.
–Чьё это море? –Это море Земли.
Whose sea is this? -This is the Earth’s sea.
–Чьи это листья? –Это листья дерева.
Whose leaves are these? -These leaves are the tree’s.
III. my, your, his, her, etc.
How do we express my, your, his, her, etc. in Russian? Well, it’s not too difficult, but, once again, there is more gender agreement!
| – | чей | чья | чьё | чьи |
| я | мой | моя | моё | мои |
| ты | твой | твоя | твоё | твои |
| он – оно | его | его | его | его |
| она | её | её | её | её |
| мы | наш | наша | наше | наши |
| вы | ваш | ваша | ваше | ваши |
| они | их | их | их | их |
…The possessive forms don’t change at all for он, она, оно and они. Super simple, right? Also, the forms are the same for both он and оно.
–Чей это брат? –Это мой брат.
Whose brother is this? -This is my brother.
–Чья это сестра? –Это моя сестра.
Whose sister is this? -This is my sister.
–Чьё это поле? –Это моё поле.
Whose field is this? -This is my field.
–Чьи это книги? –Это мои книги.
Whose book are these? -These are my books.
Note that твой works exactly like мой:
твой брат, твоя сестра, твоё поле, твои книги
(your brother, your sister, your field, your books)
And ваш and наш have a lot in common:
наш брат, наша сестра, наше поле, наши книги
(our brother, our sister, our field, our books)
ваш брат, ваша сестра, ваше поле, ваши книги
(your brother, your sister, your field, your books)
And the forms that don’t change require almost no effort:
его брат, её брат, их брат
(his brother, her brother, their brother)
его сестра, её сестра, их сестра
(his sister, her sister, their sister)
его поле, её поле, их поле
(his field, her field, their field)
его книги, её книги, их книги
(his books, her books, their books)
With that we’ll end this loaded lesson.
My Slavic Studies 