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Genitive case of Russian nouns

Russian grammar --> Russian cases --> Genitive Case

Basic meaning

The genitive case is a set of word forms (in singular and plural) the basic function of which is to show a possessor, like the English preposition "of" in the phrase "the book of the student".

Uses of the Genitive

1. To show a possession. In general, possession is shown by putting the possessor or the object one belongs to in the genitive case form.

Talking about the genitive and the ways to designate a possession, it would be worthwhile to mention a prepositional construction which is commonly used for expressing ownership in Russian. This construction requires the preposition у (by) followed by a genitive case form. This construction may use the verb есть (literally: there is, there are), but its presence is not always required. The verb is the most frequently used if this construction emphasizes the existence of an object. If this construction emphasizes a new information about some features (like color, size, quantity etc) of the possessed object, the verb will most likely be absent.

At the same time, the Russian language has an equivalent of the English verb "to have" – иметь, but its range of usage is much more restricted than the above mentioned construction.

2. With quantity words and cardinal numerals.

a) after quantity words, like много (many, much), мало (a few, not much), несколько (several), and words indicating a package or a measure, like "bottle", "cup", "gram", "meter" etc.

b) after cardinal numerals. This is a complicated use of Russian cases, because cardinal numerals may decline themselves, which may influence on the case form of the following words. However, in simple phrases, cardinal numerals are often followed by the genitive case, and you should devote attention to the following situations:

- numerals 2, 3, 4 and numerals ending with 2, 3, 4 (e.g. 23, 43, 54) are followed by the genitive singular form.

- 5 and upwards (except numerals mentioned above) are followed by the genitive plural form.

3. In the construction with the word нет meaning "there is not/there are not"

4. After negated transitive verbs.

However, this rule frequently does not apply, and the nouns after negated transitive verbs are often in the accusative case form, particularly in conversational Russian. Thus, it is also possible to say "Он не читает газеты", where the word газеты (newspapers) is the accusative plural form of the word газета (newspaper).

5. For food and drinks nouns meaning "some":

6. After a large number of prepositions, the most frequent of which are:

без – without
для – for
из – from
кроме - except
около – near/approximately
после – after

Formation

Here we provide general rules how to form genitive case forms from nominative singular forms. These rules cover the vast majority of Russian nouns. However, you should be aware that rules described below may have other exceptions.

Genitive case endings

The table below represents regular endings for singular and plural genitive case forms:

Gender	Singular	Plural
Masculine	-а / -я	-ов / -ев / -ей / Ø
Feminine	-ы / -и	Ø / -ей
Neuter	-а / -я	Ø / -ей

Below, you will find detailed information about genitive singular and plural forms of masculine, feminine and neuter nouns.

Genitive singular

Masculine nouns

1. Nouns ending in a consonant add the ending -а:

2. Nouns ending in -й and -ь change the final letters to -я:

3. Masculine nouns ending in -a/-я (see: Masculine nouns) form the genitive case forms following the rules for feminine nouns (see below).

Feminine nouns

1. Nouns ending in -а should change the final -а to -ы. However, following the Spelling rule №1 nouns ending -жа, -чa, -ща, -ша and -ка, -ха, -га can not have the ending -ы, and take the ending -и.

2. Nouns ending in -я and in -ь change the final -я and -ь to -и:

Neuter nouns

1. Nouns ending in -o change their ending to -а:

2. Nouns ending in -е change their ending to -я:

3. Nouns ending in -мя (see: Neuter nouns ending in -мя) change -я to -ени:

Genitive plural

Masculine nouns

1. Nouns ending in a consonant, except those ending -ж, -ч, -щ, -ш (see below), add the ending -ов:

2. Nouns ending in -й change their final letter to -ев:

3. Nouns ending in the soft sign (ь) and -ж, -ч, -щ, -ш add the ending -ей (the soft sign will disapper):

4. A few masculine nouns have the genitive plural form equal to the nominative singular, i.e. they have zero ending.

5. Masculine nouns ending in -a/-я (see: Masculine nouns) form the genitive plural forms following the rules for feminine nouns (see below).

Feminine nouns

1. Nouns ending in -а drop this final vowel. In other words, they have zero ending:

Note that nouns with a stem ending in two (or more) consonants need a fleeting vowel (-o- or -e-) which is inserted before the last consonant. In most instances (but not always!), -e- is inserted if the stem end in ж/ш/ч/ц/щ/ + consonant or a soft consonant + consonant, and -о- is used if the stem ends in another combination of consonants.

2. Nouns ending in -я drop this final vowel, and add the soft sign (if their stem ends in a consonant) or -й (nouns ending in -ея and -ия). These nouns are considered to have zero ending.

3. Nouns ending in a soft sign drop the soft sign and add the ending -ей

Neuter nouns

Most neuter nouns have zero ending: they drop the final letter to form the genitive plural. Neuter nouns that have the stem ending in two (or more) consonants need a fleeting vowel (-o- or -e-) which is inserted before the last consonant. The vowel -о- is inserted if the stress falls on the fleeting vowel, and -e- is used if the stress falls somewhere else in the stems:

2. Nouns ending in consonnat + e change their ending to -ей:

3. Nouns ending in -ие change the ending -ие to -ий:

4. Nouns ending in -мя (see: Neuter nouns ending in -мя) change their ending to -мён:

See also

- Russian Cases
- Russian Nouns Declension
- Exercises: Genitive singular forms of Russian nouns
- Exercises: Genitive plural forms of Russian nouns

You can find more examples of word forms in genitive singular and genitive plural on the page Russian nouns declension