The meaning of the noun

Constituive is a part of a speech that indicates an object and answers the following questions кто? (= who?) , что? (= what?) :

This meaning is expressed with the help of independent categories of gender, number, case, animateness and inanimateness.

According to their meaning substantives are divided into proper nouns and common nouns.

Substantives refer to masculine, feminine, or neuter genders,they change by case (six case forms) and by numbers (the singular and the plural).

The initial form of substantive is the nominative singular form:

In the sentence substantives often appear as subject and object.

Proper nouns

Proper nouns are names of individuals and objects.Proper nouns include:

Common nouns

Common nouns is a common name for all homogeneous objects, phenomena, actions or states:

Animate and inanimate nouns

Animated substantives are used as names of people and animals and they answer the question кто? (= who?) :

Inanimated substantives are used as names of inanimate objects, as well as objects of the vegetable world and answer the question что? (= what?) :

Gender of nouns

All substantives (not including substantives which are always used in the plural: но́жницы (= scisssors) , брю́ки (= trousers) , etc.) refer to one of the three genders: masculine, feminine or neuter.

In the Russian language there are three types of substantives: feminine, masculine and neuter. In most cases, the gender of the substatntives can be determined by its ending.

Substantives of masculine gender end in

Substantives of feminine gender end in

Substantives of neuter gender end in:

Some substantives with endings -а/-я refer to the masculine gender if they denote males , or refer to the feminine gender if they denote females. These are substantives of common gender:

Number of nouns

Substantives are used in the singular form or in the plural form.

The singular form is used when it comes to one object:

The plural form is used when it comes to several objects:

Some substantives are used either only in the singular (singularita tantum), or only in the plural (pluralia tantum)

Substantives that have only the singular form:

Substantives that have only the plural form:

Cases of nouns

In Russian there are six cases: the nominative, the genitive, the dative, the accusative, the instrumental and the prepositional. The case is determined with the help of a question.

In the sentence the nominative case is always used without preposition:

The remaining cases are called objective cases; they can be used with prepositions:

or without prepositions:

except for the prepositional case, which is always used with prepositions:

Reliable questions кто? (= who?) , кого? (= whom?) , кому? (= to whom?) etc. refer to animated substantives :

And questions что? (= what?) , чего? (= what?) , чему? (= to what?) etc. refer to inanimated substantives :

Declension of nouns

Declination of substantives is a change of words according to the case. In Russian there are three types of declensions of substantives .

First declension

The first type of declension includes substantives of feminine gender with ending -а/-я in the nominative singular form :

and also substantitives of masculine gender with the same endings denoting people :

Second declension

The second type of declension includes substantives of masculine gender with zero ending {1} :

and also with -о, -е endings :

and substantives of neuter gender with endings -о, -е in the nominative singular form:

Third declension

The third type of declension includes substantives of feminine gender with zero ending {1} in the nominative singular form: :

Substantives мать (= mother) and дочь (= daughter) have a particular declension. These substantives in all cases, except for the nominative and accusative case in the singular have inflectional suffix -ер-:

Nouns with irregular declension

Ten substantives of neuter gender ending in -мя:

and substantive of masculine gender путь (= path) in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases in the singular have the endings of substantives of the third type of declension -и:

and in the instrumental case have endings of substantives of the second type of declension -ем/-ём:

Declension of nouns of the middle gender with -мя ending

For nouns -мя in the genitive, dative, instrumental and prepositional cases in the singular and in all cases in the plural inflectional suffix -ен-/-ён- is added to the root:

In the words seed and stirrup in the genitive plural form the suffix -ян- is added to the root:

Declension of путь (= path) noun

Aptotes

Indeclinable nouns are the nouns that have the same form for all cases:

Among them there are both common names:

and proper names:

Indeclinable nouns include: