In this post we take a look at the endings of singular nouns in the genitive case. The genitive case often gets a bad rap for being one of the most difficult cases in the Russian language. Admittedly the plural noun endings in this case aren't a walk in the park.
Hopefully in this post you'll learn everything you need to master singular nouns, and eliminate some of the confusion that often surrounds this grammatical case.
Masculine & neuter nouns
Hard endings
The basic genitive endings for masculine and neuter nouns with a hard ending is -а.
nominative | genitive | |
|---|---|---|
язык | языка | |
Борис | Бориса | |
окно | окна | |
письмо | письма |
Soft endings
The basic genitive ending for masculine and neuter nouns with a soft ending is -я.
nominative | genitive | |
|---|---|---|
общежитие | общежития | |
Словарь | Словаря | |
музей | музея | |
Дмитрий | Дмитрия |
Feminine nouns
Hard endings
The basic genitive endings for feminine nouns that end in a hard stem is -ы.
nominative | genitive | |
|---|---|---|
школа | школы | |
мама | мамы | |
Москва | Москвы |
Soft endings
The basic genitive endings for feminine nouns that end with a soft stem is -и.
nominative | genitive | |
|---|---|---|
кухня | кухни | |
Оля | Оли | |
тётя | тёти | |
лекция | лекции | |
кровать | кровати |
Feminine nouns with the 7-letter spelling rule
Feminine nouns that end in a hard stem with one of the following 7 letters with get an -и ending instead of an -ы ending.
The 7 letter spelling rule:
Don't use ы after the letters г, к, х, ж, ш, щ, and ч. Instead use и
nominative | genitive | |
|---|---|---|
книга | книги | |
бабушка | бабушки | |
Маша | Маши |
Final thoughts
The endings for the genitive singular aren't that complicated. After a bit of study and practice you should be able to pick them up right away!
