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Russian instrumental case

  Tags: Russian
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages Post Reply
rmel
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Studies: French, Russian

 
 Message 1 of 3
06 September 2014 at 12:11am | IP Logged 
As I understand it a sentence with 'with' in Russian are in the instrumental case if you do something with an object. e.g. I painted the room with a brush, brush would have the instrumental ending. However I am unsure about other objects of sentences with 'with'. For example the sentence the 'The women with the dog'. Would dog be in the instrumental case?
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Serpent
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 Message 2 of 3
06 September 2014 at 12:51am | IP Logged 
Yes, "with" always uses the instrumental case (but c can also mean from, as in "с севера"). Remember that the case names are not very precise metaphors, for example the accusative doesn't always involve accusations :) In this example, a human is using a dog for accompanying them.

Also, since the case itself implies "with", normally there's no preposition when it's used in English to denote an instrument. So гулять с собакой, but красить кистью.

Edited by Serpent on 06 September 2014 at 1:03am

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Henkkles
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 Message 3 of 3
17 September 2014 at 1:04pm | IP Logged 
I was browsing this forum and I noticed this thread; there is probably one more thing you should know about the case:

The instrumental alone sometimes conveys an essive meaning, which in English is usually marked by the preposition 'as'; for example

I work as (a) secretary
Я рaбoтaю сeкрeтaр

it's because of this meaning that the 'with'-meaning can't be conveyed (at least usually) without the c-preposition, the sentences

рaбoтaю сeкрeтaрeм
рaбoтaю с сeкрeтaрeм

are fundamentally different.

If Serpent sees this she might be able to explain it better.

Edited by Henkkles on 17 September 2014 at 1:04pm



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