I love grammar, you know that very well, so I thought I’d write a post on Russian nouns ending in –мя. Can you think of any?
The first two that probably come to mind are время [time] and имя [name]. These two are by far the most commonly used nouns in this weird group, which is why knowing them is essential. There are more, but not many more. 8 more, actually.
Yes, it’s true, there are only 10 words in the entire Russian language which end in –мя. Let’s take a look at all 10 in this organized table!
| время | time |
| имя | name |
| семя | seed |
| пламя | flame |
| знамя | banner |
| племя | tribe |
| вымя | udder [of a cow] |
| бремя | burden |
| стремя | stirrup [of a sadle] |
| темя | crown [of the head] |
These nouns are all neuter, which was probably obvious given that both время and имя and they all decline the same way since they all share the same ending. The declension for them is irregular, sadly.
Here’s the full declension for the noun имя.
| case | sing. | plur. |
|---|---|---|
| nom. | имя | имена |
| gen. | имени | имён |
| dat. | имени | именам |
| acc. | имя | имена |
| inst. | именем | именами |
| prep. | имени | именах |
Well, that’s all for today’s post.
My Slavic Studies 