A Comprehensive Guide to the Russian Genitive Case

There is no doubt about it: Russian loves its case system, and with the whole language choosing to make sense using a case system rather than word order, it’s not going anywhere any time soon. Today, we’re going to take a good look at one of the most important components of this system: the Russian genitive case.

Do you want to know how to form the Russian genitive and when to use it?

Well, buckle up, because we are going to go on an adventure together.

General Rules for the Russian Genitive

The Simple Parts of the Russian Genitive:

In its most simplified sense, the Russian genitive gives us the idea of something coming from something else.

This includes:

Possession

• собака отца – father’s dog
• отец собаки – the dog’s father

The word in bold is the person that owns the other object.

Authorship

• стихи А.С. Пушкина – the poems of Pushkin

The poems were written by Pushkin, therefore they are of Pushkin.

General ‘of’

• тяготы повседневной жизни – the tribulations of everyday life
• министерство сельского хозяйства – the Department of Agriculture

Quantity

When talking about quantity, we use the following indefinite numerals followed by the genitive:

• много/много детей –a lot of / not many children
• мало/немало хлеба – a little / quite a lot of bread
• несколько лет – a few years
• достаточно/недостаточно денег – enough / not enough money
• сколько рублей? – how many rubles?

We also use the genitive with the verb хватать/хватить – to be enough:

• хватит времени – there will be enough time

Prepositions Taking the Genitive

The genitive is also used after a series of prepositions:

у	next to, by (also used in the construction у меня, у тебя…)	у стола У меня есть сестра.	next to the table I have a sister.
для	for	Тут для неё подарок.	Here is a present for her.
из	of, from	Она из Англии. Мой пиджак сделан из кожи.	She is from England. My jacket is made of leather.
от	from	Когда вы в последний раз получили письмо от него?	When did you last receive a letter from him?
без	without	Пожалуйста, перепишите это письмо без единой ошибки.	Please copy out this letter without any mistakes.
до	until, up to, to	У него была борода до пояса.	His beard reached his waist.

Verbs Taking the Genitive

Still with us? Good. There are also some verbs which tend to take the genitive. Unfortunately, like all the best parts of the Russian language, you will have to memorise them. Here are a couple for you:

добиваться / добиться	to achieve, to obtain	Мы добились успеха благодаря его помощи.	We succeeded (achieved success) thanks to his help.
желать / пожелать	to desire, to wish	Я желаю вам самого большого счастья!	I wish you all the best!
заслуживать	to deserve	Он вполне заслуживает наказания.	He fully deserves punishment.

Got that? Excellent. Let’s move on, shall we?

The Slightly More Tricky Parts of the Russian Genitive:

Numerals:

Ah yes, numerals! The Russian genitive case loves numerals. So much so that the genitive case decides to have a little party and go absolutely bonkers depending on what number we use.

A very watered down explanation is this:

• 1 – takes the nominative singular.
• 2, 3, 4 – takes the genitive singular (any number that ends in 2, 3, or 4 also takes the genitive singular).
• Anything other than 1, 2, 3, or 4 takes the genitive plural.

So it goes like this:

• 1 кот – 1 cat
• 3 кота – 3 cats
• 56 котов – 56 cats
• 56982 кота – 56982 cats (because it ends with a 2)

Right, let’s move onto the next sneaky beast…

The Partitive Genitive:

If you guessed that this might have something to do with parts of something, then you would be correct.

The partitive genitive in Russian is used when we talk about having part of something. When we talk about eating bread, we (usually) don’t mean we eat the entire loaf of bread. Russian also has to make this distinction, and so puts the object into the genitive.

Он съел хлеба. – He ate some bread.

Он съел хлеб.– He ate all the bread.

Он выпил водки. – He drank some vodka.

Он выпил водку. – He drank all the vodka.

However, Russian doesn’t like us to keep us too comfortable, so some of these partitive genitives have different forms than their normal run-of-the-mill genitives. These genitive forms are used with verbs, receptacles and indefinite numerals.

Nominative	Genitive singular (normal)	Partitive genitive	Translation
лук	лука	луку	onion
сахар	сахара	сахару	sugar
чай	чая	чаю	tea
суп	супа	супу	soup
табак	табака	табаку	tobacco

This happens largely with masculine nouns ending in consonants. Have fun with that!

How to Form the Genitive in Russian?

Well, you’ve got this far, I guess we should probably learn how to actually form the Russian genitive, shouldn’t we?

We will start with masculine nouns:

Nominative	Genitive singular	Genitive plural	Translation
стол	стола	столов	a table
звонок	звонка	звонков	a bell
отец	отца	отцов	a father
иностранец	иностранца	иностранцев	a foreigner
нож	ножа	ножей	a knife
англичанин	англичанина	англичан	an Englishman
котёнок	котёнка	котят	a kitten
спектакль	спектакля	спектаклей	a play

Let’s have a closer look at this.

Стол is a hard-ending noun, therefore for genitive singular you add on -а, and for genitive plural you add on –ев.

Звонок is a noun which ends in –ок, therefore the little о disappears between the н and the к for the genitive. This happens as a general rule with -ок, -ек and -ёк nouns.

Отец is a noun which has an end stress. Notice how that little e between т and ц disappears as well! Because this is an end stress noun, we have отцов in the genitive plural.

However, иностранец is a stem-stress noun. The е still disappears, but because you can’t have an unstressed о after a ц in the Russian language, we have иностранцев.

Because нож ends in a ж, our genitive plural ends in a -ей. This happens for all nouns that end in -ж, -ч, -ш, and -щ.

Англичанин, and any Russian noun that ends in -анин or -янин follows the same pattern for genitive singular, but loses its final -ин in genitive plural.

Котёнок, being part of the -ок band of nouns, drops its –o in the genitive singular. However, it goes one step further and morphs into котят for the genitive plural. Anything ending in -ёнок or -онок (mostly the young of animals) follows this pattern.

Спектакль, being a masculine noun ending in -ь, ends in –ей in the genitive.

Of course, we also have some lovely Russian exceptions for you to learn as well!

Nominative	Genitive singular	Genitive plural	Translation
брат	брата	братьев	a brother
лист	листа	листьев	a leaf
стул	стула	стульев	a chair
муж	мужа	мужей	a husband
сын	сына	сыновей	a son
друг	друга	друзей	a friend

Next onto our neuter nouns in the genitive:

Nominative	Genitive singular	Genitive plural	Translation
место	места	мест	a place
море	моря	морей	sea
поколение	поколения	поколений	a generation
время	времени	времён	time

Место, and other -о ending neuter nouns follow the same pattern: subtract the -о and replace it with an -а for the genitive singular, and leave the end with nothing for the genitive plural.

The море pattern gives us the formula for a -е ending. Replace the -е with a -я for the genitive singular, and replace it with -ей for the genitive plural.

Поколение replaces the -е with -я in genitive singular, and in the genitive plural, it is replaced with -й.

Время, like all Russian neuter nouns ending in -мя, loses its final -я and replaces it with -ени for the genitive singular, and then for the genitive plural, replaces it with -ён, with the е morphing into a ё.

There are, naturally, a few exceptions:

Nominative	Genitive singular	Genitive plural	Translation
дерево	дерева	деревьев	a tree
крыло	крыла	крыльев	a wing
перо	пера	перьев	a feather, a pen
колено	колена	коленей	a knee
плечо	плеча	плеч	a shoulder
ухо	уха	ушей	an ear
яблоко	яблока	яблок	an apple

As an interesting side note, the Russian genitive plural of лето (summer) is the same as the genitive plural of the word for a year: 8 лет назад = 8 years ago. You can sort of see why.

Finally, feminine nouns:

Nominative	Genitive singular	Genitive plural	Translation
панда	панды	панд	a panda
жена	жены	жён	a wife
девушка	девушки	девушек	a girl
книга	книги	книг	a book
земля	земли	земель	earth
статья	статьи	статей	an article
станция	станции	станций	a station
стая	стаи	стай	a flock, a pack, a shoal
кровать	кровати	кроватей	a bed

The Russian genitive of feminine nouns is fairly straightforward, although following the spelling rules in Russian, all of the feminine nouns end in either -ы or -и in the genitive singular.

With words which end in -а, like панда, the -а changes to a -ы for genitive singular and disappears completely for genitive plural.

Девушка, being part of the Russian spelling rule (where ы can not follow a к) changes its genitive singular ending to an -и, and as it cannot have a шк together with no vowel, slips an –е- in between the ш and к.

Similarly книга, following the spelling rule of no ы after г, ends with a -и in the genitive singular and rids itself of the ending altogether in the genitive plural.

Земля, ending in a soft sound, ends in a -и with the genitive singular and replaces it with a soft sign (ь) in the genitive plural. Of course, because земль would sound awkward, it sneaks in a little -е- between its м and л.

Статья, and other nouns which end in -ья, replace their ending with –ей, whereas станция and other nouns which end in -ия replace their endings in the genitive plural with -ий. Стая (-я) and кровать (-ь) follow similar patterns.

Russian Genitive and Other Parts of Speech

Well of course, you’re all clued-up on nouns, but how about forming the Russian genitive for other elements of speech? Well, you’ll be glad to know that pronouns are a lot easier, as are adjectives. We’ll run through these quickly.

Adjectives

Russian adjectives in the genitive are incredibly simple. Firstly, masculine and neuter nouns end replace their respective -ый/-ой/-ий and -ое/-ее endings with -ого/-его depending on whether they’re hard-ending or soft-ending adjectives. Feminine adjectives in the genitive end with -ой/-ей, and plurals, you’ll be glad to hear, end with -ых/-их across the board, with no deviation in gender.

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural	Translation
Nominative	красивый	красивое	красивая	красивые	beautiful / handsome
Genitive	красивого	красивого	красивой	красивых

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural	Translation
Nominative	синий	синее	синяя	синие	blue
Genitive	синего	синего	синей	синих

Pronouns

The genitive declension of Russian pronouns is straightforward, and after having gone through them a few times, they should stick in your mind very easily.

Personal Pronouns

Singular			Plural
Nominative	Genitive	Translation	Nominative	Genitive	Translation
я	меня	I	мы	нас	we
ты	тебя	you	вы	вас	you
он	его	he	они	их	they
она	её	she
оно	его	it

Demonstrative Pronouns

Nominative	Genitive	Translation
этот	этого	this (masc.)
эта	этой	this (fem.)
это	этого	this (neut.)
тот	того	that (masc.)
та	той	that (fem.)
то	того	that (neut.)

Possessive Pronouns

Nominative	Genitive	Translation
мой	моего	my (masc.)
моя	моей	my (fem.)
мое	моего	my (neut.)
мои	моих	my (pl.)
наш	нашего	our (masc.)
наша	нашей	our (fem.)
наше	нашего	our (neut.)
наши	наших	our (pl.)

Твой (your, singular) declines in the same way as мой, and ваш (your, plural) declines in the same way as наш.

Его, её and их are indeclinable and invariable.

Interrogative and relative pronouns

Nominative	Genitive	Translation
кто	кого	who
что	чего	what
какой/какая/какое/какие	какого/какой/какого/каких	what kind
который/которая/которое/которые	которого/которой/которого/которых	who
чей/чья/чьё/чьи	чьего/чьей/чьего/чьих	whose

As you can see above, the pronouns decline very similarly to adjectives, and so they are a very easy formula to follow.

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So, that brings us to the end of our genitive guide! I hope you have as much fun using the Russian genitive with ease as I do, because you will seriously impress those Russians when you demonstrate your excellent grammar!

Just remember, that nothing comes overnight, and Russians themselves slip up in their grammar, all it takes is practise, practise, practise!

Удачи!

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