Russian dative cases can be defined as a grammatical case mainly used when referring to an indirect object of a known sentence. We have six cases in Russian: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and prepositional. Before we proceed to dative case of Russian nouns, we kindly suggest you to visit How to Learn Russian for Beginners to help you learn basic Russian as an introduction to it’s Cyrillic and basic use. Dative case being the third case of six cases in Russian language, don’t forget to take a look at Nominative Case in Russian Language
Dative cases of Russian Noun
Dative cases of Russian noun has the ability to change their noun forms and generate a different endings on every sentence. Both the endings and forms are classified as Cases. This is because all these cases shows the purpose of a noun in a sentence. Most of the grammatical gender of a gender is known to affect other forms of words related to the sentence. For example, Russian nouns have three genders such as masculine, feminine and neuter.
Forming Dative Russian cases either on Masculine Nouns, Feminine Nouns and Neuter Nouns we use special characters. Look at the further information below :
How to form Dative Case of Russian Nouns
Masculine Nouns
A masculine gender can be referred to as a male member or a species. Here are explanation of forming dative case endings and some uses of dative case of Russian nouns in masculine nouns:
Once you see a noun that ends in consonant you add “y”.
- Театр – театру (theater)
- Парк – парку (park)
when you see “й” or “ь“, you will need to replace it with “ю”.
- Музей – музею (museum)
- Рубль – рублю (rubel)
Below is a sentence that showing masculine noun in dative case:
- Я помогаю этому мальчику
Ya pomagayu etomu malchiku
I’m helping that boy
Feminine Nouns
A feminine gender can be referred to as a female member or a species. Look at further explanation below:
When you see “а” you replace with “e”
- Улица – улице (street)
- Проблема – проблеме
When you see “я ” you replace with “е“.
- неделя – неделе (week)
- Тётя – тёте
When you see “ь” replace with “и”
- Площадь – площадь (square/field)
- Дверь – двери (door)
When you see “ия” replace with “ии”
- Мария – Марии (Maria)
Sentence showing feminine noun of dative case :
- Я звонила моей маме вчера
Ya zvanyila moyei mame vchera
I called my mom yesterday
Neuter Nouns:
A neuter noun can be referred to a member of a species and non of this species can be either masculine nor feminine Here are explanation of neuter nouns in dative case:
When you see “o ” you replace with “y”.
- окно – окну (window)
- кресло – креслу (arm-chair)
When you see “е/ё” replace with “ю”
- море – морю (sea)
- копьё – копью (spear)
Sentences showing neuter noun :
- Иван дает платью Анне
Ivan dayet plat’yu Anne
Ivan gives the dress to Anna
Those are explanation and examples of singular nouns in dative case. Now, let’s continue our discussion to plural nouns of dative case.
Plural Form:
When you see a noun ends in consonant, add “ам”
- Студент – студентам (students)
When you see a noun ends in “а”, “о” replace with “ам
- Окно – окнам (windows)
When you see a noun ends in “ь, й, ий, е, ие, ё” Replace the last letter with “ям”
- Житель – жителям (civiliant)
That was all about dative case of Russian nouns, after you knew about some cases in Russian grammar then it should be easy for you to start your conversation (read also Common Greetings in Russian and Basic Russian Words for Beginners). Remember, keep learning and practicing since both of them are essential for you, language learner. Wish you a happy day!