Welcome to lesson number thirteen. I’m not a huge fan of this number. Anyway, let’s get started.
I. Indeclinable nouns
We’ve focused heavily on declension in Russian. This is a never-ending phenomenon. However, there are nouns that don’t decline. Ever! In fact, they don’t even have a plural form – they remain the same regardless of number and case.
Let’s learn some of them already!
The majority of these nouns, as you will see, are from other languages. As a result, they don’t work well with the Russian case system. This means they don’t decline.
Here are 15 commonly used nouns that never decline.
| кофе [m.] | coffee |
| фото [n.] | photo |
| метро [n.] | metro |
| пальто [n.] | coat |
| киви [f.] | kiwi |
| манго [n.] | mango |
| кафе [n.] | café, coffee shop |
| виски [n.] | whisky |
| казино [n.] | casino |
| кино [n.] | movie theater |
| евро [n.] | euro |
| меню [n.] | menu |
| адвокадо [n.] | avocado |
| пюре [n.] | purée |
| радио [n.] | radio |
Context helps us know which case is being utilized.
У меня на мобильнике много фото.
I have many photos on my cell phone.
Два кофе, пожалуства.
Two coffees, please.
Дайте мне немного кофе, пожалуйста.
Give me some coffee, please.
Это очень крупные и зрелые манго.
These are very large and ripe mangoes.
II. Plural-only nouns
There also exist nouns that are always in plural. These nouns don’t have a singular form.
Here are some common plural-only nouns.
| брюки | pants |
| часы | watch; clock |
| ножницы | scissors |
| очки | eyeglasses |
| каникулы | vacation [school] |
| санки | sled |
| деньги | money |
У неё такие модные очки.
She has very stylish glasses.
Осторожно. Это острые ножницы.
Careful. These are sharp scissors.
And that’s all for this lesson. This was meant to be a relatively easy lesson.
My Slavic Studies 