Accusative Case of Russian Nouns

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The Accusative

The accusative case is an oblique case, which is used in the sentences like "Я ценю... Пушкина, дом, общество, страну" (I appreciate ... Pushkin, home, society, country). The nouns in the accusative answer such questions as Кого? Что? (Whom? What?).

Не надо винить кого?	Не надо винить сына.	-	Whom one should not accuse?	One should not accuse a son.
Катя читает что?	Катя читает книгу.	-	What is Katya reading?	Katya is reading a book.

Like the rest of cases (except prepositional) the accusative can be used with prepositions or without them. The typical prepositions for the accusative are: в, на, за, о/об, по, под, про, с, через. For example:

упасть в воду		to fall into water
знать про нас		to know about us
встать на ноги		to stand on feet

The principal meaning of the accusative is to designate a person or thing to whom or which and action is being done. For example: Люся любит брата (Lucy loves her brother); Мы видим море (We see the sea)

When used with the prepositions в and на, the accusative means motion towards or direction correspondigly.

To put nouns into accusative correctly you should know that Russian nouns are divided into animate and inanimate. Animate nouns are those which describe someone alive like человек, кошка (a man, a cat).

In general, the accusative is formed from the nominative singular nouns with the help of the following endings: -у, -ю, -а, -я (singular); -ей, -ой, -ов, -ев (plural). In most cases, you should remove the last letter from the nominative of the noun and add one of the mentioned endings (луна less -а plus -у = луну). The good news is that in some cases the accusative is similar to the nominative and genitive.

Remember, that the accusative is similar to the nominative!!

for all inanimate nouns
for singular feminine nouns ending in -ь
for plural feminine nouns the singular form of which ends in -а, -я

Also remember, that the accusative is similar to the genitive!!

for plural feminine and masculine nouns ending in -а, -я

The tables below sum up how the accusative of nouns is formed.

The Accusative of singular nouns

		Nominative singular	Remove	Add	Accusative singular
inan- imate Accusative is equal to singular Nominative	masculine	стол чай ветер			стол чай ветер
	neuter	окно море			окно море
	feminine	ночь			ночь
animate	feminine ending in -ь Accusative is equal to singular Nominative	дочь			дочь
	masculine	отец журавль	-- ь	а я	отца журавля
	feminine and masculine ending in -а, -я	бочка воля	а я	у ю	бочку волю
inan- imate	feminine ending in -а, -я	вода	а	у	воду

The Accusative of plural nouns

		Nominative singular (plural)	Remove	Add	Accusative plural
inan- imate Accusative is equal to plural Nominative	masculine	стол (столы) чай (чаи) ветер (ветры)			столы чаи ветры
	neuter	окно (окна) море (моря)			окна моря
	feminine	ночь (ночи)			ночи
animate	feminine ending in -ь	дочь	ь	ей	дочерей
	masculine	отец журавль	-- ь	ов ей	отцов журавлей
	feminine and masculine ending in -а, -я Accusative is equal to plural Genitive	бочка (бочки) стая (стаи)			бочки стаи
inan- imate	feminine ending in -а, -я Accusative is equal to plural Nominative	вода (воды) книга (книги)			воды книги