Asking What, Who and Where: Nominative and Prepositional Case

1 декабря 2016

1. Asking What and Who? The Nominative case
The Nominative case is the main form of nouns and their modifiers: adjectives and possessive pronouns.
The Nominative is used for naming . Nouns in the Nominative case answer the questions like "What is this?", "Who is this?", "Who is he"?
Learn the following questions and answers. Click each dialogue to listen, then read it. Try to imitate the speaker's intonation.

- Что это?
- Это мой учебник.
- What is this?
- This is my textbook.

- Кто это?
- Это мой друг.
- Who is this?
- This is my friend.

3. - Кто он?
- Он студент.

3. - Who is he?
- He is a student.

Notes

The interrogative pronoun что (what) is used to ask about objects and things; кто (who) is used to ask about people and animals.
In a dictionary all nouns, adjectives and possessive pronouns are given in the Nominative case.
All other cases are formed from the Nominative.
2. Asking Where? The Prepositional case
The Prepositional case of a noun with the preposition в - "in" is used to indicate location.
Click the following statements to listen, then read them aloud.

Где твой учебник?
Он в сумке.
Where is your textbook?
It is in the bag.
Где твой друг?
Он сейчас в Мексике.
Where is your friend?
He is in Mexico now.
Моя сестра в России.

3. My sister is in Russia.

The Prepositional case of nouns is formed from the Nominative case.
Study the formation of the Prepositional Singular :
Hard stem nouns
Nominative -> Prepositional
Soft stem nouns
Nominative -> Prepositional
Translation of the nouns in
the Prepositional case
Masculine
город -> в городе
музей -> в музее
in the city, in the museum
словарь -> в словаре
in the dictionary
кафетерий -> в кафетерии
in the cafeteria
Feminine
сумка -> в сумке
песня -> в песне
in the bag, in the song

тетрадь -> в тетради
in the notebook
Россия -> в России
in Russia
Neuter
письмо -> в письме
море -> в море
in the letter, in the sea
ружьё -> в ружье
in the gun

здание -> в здании
in the building
Prepositional Singular endings: -е or -и

Notes

The basic Prepositional case ending for all singular nouns (hard and soft stem masculine, feminine and neuter) is -е.
Feminine nouns ending in -ь in the Nominative take the ending -и in the Prepositional case.
Nouns ending in -ий (masculine), in -ия (feminine ), and in -ие (neuter) in the Nominative also take the ending -и in the Prepositional case.
Study the formation of the Prepositional Plural:
Hard stem nouns
Nominative -> Prepositional
Soft stem nouns
Nominative -> Prepositional
Plural
город -> в городах
сумка -> в сумках
письмо -> в письмах
музей -> в музеях
словарь -> в словарях
кафетерий -> в кафетериях
песня -> в песнях
тетрадь -> в тетрадях
море -> в морях
ружьё -> в ружьях
здание -> в зданиях
Prepositional Plural endings: -ах or -ях
Notes
The Prepositional case ending for hard stem nouns in the plural is -ах.
The Prepositional case ending for soft stem nouns in the plural is -ях.

When you form the Prepositional case (singular or plural), drop the final -й, -ь, -а, -я, -о, -е, -ё from the Nominative case form and add the appropriate Prepositional case ending: музей -> в музее, в музеях; сумка -> в сумке, в сумках; Россия -> в России, здание -> в здании, в зданиях, etc.
Since hard stem masculine nouns (the nouns that end in a consonant other than -й) have zero ending (-Ø), you "drop zero" or simply add the Prepositional case ending: город -> в городе, в городах.
Exercises Упражнения
Form the Prepositional singular of nouns
Form the Prepositional plural of nouns
Multicultural quiz
Find the appropriate answer