grunts67 Diglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5097 days ago 215 posts - 252 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian
| Message 1 of 4 31 July 2010 at 10:07pm | IP Logged |
I am having difficulty with Russian declension. To be moe specific, I don't know for sure which question to ask, how to ask t to determine the word case. I will try to explain how I understand each case and I hope you will be able to correct my mistakes.
1- The nominative case
It is the basic from of every word that have a declension. A word in this case is a subject. The word is a governing type. To determine this case we use the question : Who is ? What is ?
2- The Genetive case
A word using this case determine the orgin of action (it governed by that action). We use the questions: From who? From what?
3- The dative case
A word using this case is attributed (given) an action (it governed by that action). We use the questions: Whose ?
4- The Accusative case
A word using this case is a direct complement (Complement direct in French) of an action. We use the questions: What? Who ?
5- The Instrumental
A word using this case is a word explaing how an action is taking place. We use the questions: How ? Which ?
6- The prepositional
A word using this case always have a preposition 'where' (wihout movement) before it. It use to determine a location of an action. We use the question: Where ? About Where ? About Who ?
I use the word action but it refer to the verb. As for how we ask the question, I think we do like in English, we ask the question after the verb and it will allow us to determine the nature of the different word govern or linked by the verb.
I hope you will be able to clarify this declension system.
Thank for reading this.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6951 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish
| Message 2 of 4 31 July 2010 at 10:45pm | IP Logged |
grunts67 wrote:
I am having difficulty with Russian declension. To be moe specific, I don't know for sure which question to ask, how to ask t to determine the word case. I will try to explain how I understand each case and I hope you will be able to correct my mistakes.
1- The nominative case
It is the basic from of every word that have a declension. A word in this case is a subject. The word is a governing type. To determine this case we use the question : Who is ? What is ? |
|
|
Correct.
grunts67 wrote:
2- The Genetive case
A word using this case determine the orgin of action (it governed by that action). We use the questions: From who? From what? |
|
|
Not really. The genitive normally deals with possession however its use extends beyond that realm too. Certain prepositions (e.g. "без", "от") force the relevant adjectives or nouns to take on genitive endings, and it also acts as a "negative" accusative or even a partitive-like case (e.g. think of French "je bois du lait de soja" compared to "je bois le lait de soja"). It tends to answer the question "of what?", "of whom?", "whose?" but this is most relevant for the genitive's use in possession.
grunts67 wrote:
3- The dative case
A word using this case is attributed (given) an action (it governed by that action). We use the questions: Whose ? |
|
|
Not really. Dative answers the question: "To whom?", "To what?". It's comparable to complément indirect in French.
grunts67 wrote:
4- The Accusative case
A word using this case is a direct complement (Complement direct in French) of an action. We use the questions: What? Who ? |
|
|
Correct but to be really precise in English, the question is "whom?" as that is the non-nominative form of "who?".
grunts67 wrote:
5- The Instrumental
A word using this case is a word explaing how an action is taking place. We use the questions: How ? Which ? |
|
|
The questions are usually rather: "With whom?", "With what?". However there are certain prepositions that force the succeeding noun or adjective to take on instrumental endings (e.g. над "above") and they are unrelated to the idea of being "with" sb or sg.
grunts67 wrote:
6- The prepositional
A word using this case always have a preposition 'where' (wihout movement) before it. It use to determine a location of an action. We use the question: Where ? About Where ? About Who ? |
|
|
Correct. It's also used in figurative senses, not just ones involving physical location (e.g. to think about sb)
grunts67 wrote:
I use the word action but it refer to the verb. As for how we ask the question, I think we do like in English, we ask the question after the verb and it will allow us to determine the nature of the different word govern or linked by the verb.
I hope you will be able to clarify this declension system.
Thank for reading this. |
|
|
4 persons have voted this message useful
|
grunts67 Diglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5097 days ago 215 posts - 252 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian
| Message 3 of 4 31 July 2010 at 10:59pm | IP Logged |
Chung wrote:
grunts67 wrote:
I am having difficulty with Russian declension. To be moe specific, I don't know for sure which question to ask, how to ask t to determine the word case. I will try to explain how I understand each case and I hope you will be able to correct my mistakes.
1- The nominative case
It is the basic from of every word that have a declension. A word in this case is a subject. The word is a governing type. To determine this case we use the question : Who is ? What is ? |
|
|
Correct.
grunts67 wrote:
2- The Genetive case
A word using this case determine the orgin of action (it governed by that action). We use the questions: From who? From what? |
|
|
Not really. The genitive normally deals with possession however its use extends beyond that realm too. Certain prepositions (e.g. "без", "от") force the relevant adjectives or nouns to take on genitive endings, and it also acts as a "negative" accusative or even a paritive-like case (e.g. think of French "je bois du lait de soja" compared to "je bois le lait de soja"). It tends to answer the question "of what?", "of whom?" but this is most relevant for the genitive's use in possession.
grunts67 wrote:
3- The dative case
A word using this case is attributed (given) an action (it governed by that action). We use the questions: Whose ? |
|
|
Not really. Dative answers the question: "To whom?", "To what?". It's comparable to complément indirect in French.
grunts67 wrote:
4- The Accusative case
A word using this case is a direct complement (Complement direct in French) of an action. We use the questions: What? Who ? |
|
|
Correct but to be really precise in English, the question is "whom?" as that is the non-nominative form of "who?".
grunts67 wrote:
5- The Instrumental
A word using this case is a word explaing how an action is taking place. We use the questions: How ? Which ? |
|
|
The questions are usually rather: "With whom?", "With what?". However there are certain prepositions that force the succeeding noun or adjective to take on instrumental endings (e.g. над "above") and they are unrelated to the idea of being "with" sb or sg.
grunts67 wrote:
6- The prepositional
A word using this case always have a preposition 'where' (wihout movement) before it. It use to determine a location of an action. We use the question: Where ? About Where ? About Who ? |
|
|
Correct. It's also used in figurative senses, not just ones involving physical location (e.g. to think about sb)
grunts67 wrote:
I use the word action but it refer to the verb. As for how we ask the question, I think we do like in English, we ask the question after the verb and it will allow us to determine the nature of the different word govern or linked by the verb.
I hope you will be able to clarify this declension system.
Thank for reading this. |
|
|
|
|
|
It cover pretty much every doubt and question I had. It will take some time to assimilate everything but I should be able to determine 90% or more form the current word case I see.
The method I use (Assimil: Le nouveau Russe sans peine) use odd questions (in French) to determine the case. For the instrumental they use 'par qui?, par quoi?' which made it a rather unnatural question compare with 'avec qui? avec quoi?'.
For the Dative, they use 'à qui, à quoi' but didn't tell us to look for a 'Complement d'object indirect' which would have save me a lot of trouble. Now, that I know that distinction I should be fine.
The genetive case seem to be the only real chanlenging case left. Still, I should be fine with case of possession and on the negative accusation type of phrase. For the rest, study, exposure should do the trick.
Again, thank you very much. You were able to answer all my questions in a very effective manners. I really appreciate.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
RedKing'sDream Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5594 days ago 53 posts - 68 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Ukrainian
| Message 4 of 4 01 August 2010 at 8:18pm | IP Logged |
Some verbs, prepositions, and quantifiers govern cases in a non-intuitive way, so don't rely too much on this analytic method.
1 person has voted this message useful
|