5.6 Grammar: Accusative Case andMasculine Animates (наконец-то!)

Introduction

At this point, you need to know there’s something about masculine animate nouns in Russian and that there is something a little different about them.

You may or may not have noticed that you never learned how to put masculine animated nouns in Accusative, meaning we never said things, like “I see Ivan,” or “I know Max.”  Masculine animate refers to nouns that are masculine and animate – not just alive but also animate (not plants).

Masculine animate nouns in the Accusative Case look EXACTLY like masculine nouns in Genitive Case! So, now that you know about Genitive Case endings, you get a free gift – Accusative Case forms for masculine animate nouns! How great is that?

Look at his names: Ива́н / Ва́ня

• Ива́н refers to a living male being AND the word itself is masculine (it ends in a consonant).
• Ва́ня ALSO refers to a living male being BUT the word itself LOOKS feminine, so it ACTS feminine.

Russian grammar is quirky. Even though both words refer to the same person, the formal name with its masculine ending gets the masculine animate -a ending. The short form with its feminine-like – ending gets a feminine Accusative ending.

The same thing, you’ll notice, happens with ANY other masculine being whose name / word looks feminine:

RULES for Masculine Animate Nouns in Accusative

The masculine animate ‘a’ ending is different than what we’ve seen so far. If a word, like брат, оте́ц, Ива́н, or Серге́й, etc. refers to a person or animal AND that word is MASCULINE, then the Accusative ending is:

The ending -а is added to ‘hard’ stems. These tend to be run-of-the-mill consonants, like брат, Ива́н, оте́ц, or друг.

The ending -я is added to ‘soft’ stems. For now, soft stems will be most recognizable Nominative forms whose endings are either -ь or -й, like Игорь or Сергей. For these soft stems, note that the final or first drops and then -я is added:

Всё поня́тно?

3) Повторе́ние

Review of ALL the Accusative Case noun endings

Let’s put it ALL together and review ALL Accusative Case endings for all genders. You saw most of this last unit.

Rules to Follow and the Mechanics of Accusative Case:

1. For all INANIMATE masculine nouns, Accusative case endings are identical to Nominative case endings. Whew! Just be grateful.

2. For all ANIMATE masculine nouns (people and all other animals) add -а to all hard stems and -я to all soft stems. People and all other animals, including bugs and insects, are considered animate beings. Non-living things and plants are considered inanimate entities.

3. For feminine nouns, drop the feminine nominative – –  ending and add – to hard stems and – to soft stems. If a noun ends in a soft sign, like тетрадь, площадь, мать, or дочь, there is technically no change in form.

4. For neuter nouns the Accusative case endings look exactly like the Nominative case endings. There is no change and nothing new to learn for neuter nouns.

5. Finally, let’s say one thing about plural nouns. If a noun is INANIMATE and plural, there is no change from Nominative to Accusative ending. If the noun is plural and ANIMATE, however, things get a little more interesting, but we are going to hold off until next SEMESTER it’s that’s special.