Prepositional case. Singular and plural nouns

Introduction
  1. The prepositional case is used to indicate the place, or location, where something or someone is situated, or where something is happening.
  2. This case is called 'prepositional' because the noun that has this ending is always preceded by a preposition.
  3. Russian uses three prepositions with the prepositional case:
    в, во - in, at
    на - on, at
    о, об - about
  4. We use the preposition в primarily to indicate a location that is generally an enclosed place: дом=house, квартира=apartment, страна=country.
  5. We use the preposition на to indicate location that is usually some kind of a surface or an activity that one can attend: площадь=square, улица=street, лекция=lecture, концерт=concert, урок=lesson.
  6. We also use the preposition на with the directions of the compass: север=north, запад=west, восток=east, юг=south.
  7. There are always exceptions to the rule regarding the use of the prepositions в and на. These nouns will take the preposition на, although they designate enclose places: фабрика=factory, почта=post office, станция=station, улица=street, вокзал=train station.
Singular nouns
  1. To show that a noun is in the prepositional case, you put the ending -e to the stem of the noun.
  2. To a masculine noun you add the ending immediately after the last consonant:
    nominativeprepositional
    домв доме
    журналв журнале
    Вашингтонв Вашингтоне
    институтв институте
  3. If the masculine noun ends in a soft sign, you drop the soft sign before you add the prepositional ending: портфель - в портфеле.
  4. Some one syllable masculine nouns have the ending in the prepositional case:
    nominativeprepositional
    мостна мосту
    полна полу
    лесв лесу
    садв саду
    шкафв шкафу
  5. For feminine and neuter nouns, you first drop the last vowel before you add the -e ending:
    nominativeprepositional
    газетав газете
    Москвав Москве
    библиотекав библиотеке
    деревняв деревне
    письмов письме
  6. Feminine nouns that end with the vowel combination -ия and neuter nouns that end with the vowel combination -ие, take the special prepositional ending .
  7. As with other feminine and neuter nouns, first you have to drop the last vowel before you add this ending:
    nominativeprepositional
    Калифорнияв Калифорнии
    упражнениев упражнении
  8. Feminine nouns that end in soft sign (ь) will have the ending in the prepositional case: площадь - площади, тетрадь - тетради
    nominativeprepositional
    площадьна площади
    тетрадьв тетради
  9. These two nouns extend their stem with -ер- before adding the prepositional ending:
    nominativeprepositional
    матьо матери
    дочьо дочери
  10. Prepositional phrases should be read as a single word, without stopping between the preposition and the noun.
Plural nouns
  1. The prepositional plural endings for nouns are the same for all genders:
    -ах for hard stem nouns
    -ях for soft stem nouns
  2. Review Hard and soft stems
    Nominative Prepositional plural
    Hard stem журнал журналах
    письмо письмах
    школа школах
    Soft stem музей музеях
    словарь словарях
    платье платьях
    кухня кухнях
    тетрадь тетрадях
    версия версиях
    общежитие общежитиях

Copyright ©. George Goce Mitrevski. mitrevski@pelister.org