Cases

A case is the job a noun is doing in a sentence, shown by its ending. The same word changes shape depending on whether it's the doer, the target, the owner, or the destination. English mostly lost this (only I → me, he → him survive); Russian keeps a full set of six cases.

That's the good news for German speakers: you already think in cases. Russian adds two the German system doesn't name separately, the instrumental and the prepositional and marks them all with endings rather than articles.

Here is the whole system on one page. Each case answers a question and does a job. tap any name for the full chapter.

The clearest way to feel the system is to watch a single noun move through every role. Here is книга (book) doing each of the six jobs:

• Книга — The book is interesting. (Nominative)
• книгу — I'm reading the book. (Accusative)
• книги — There's no book. (Genitive)
• книге — I'm glad about the book. (Dative)
• книгой — I'm interested in the book. (Instrumental)
• о книге — We're talking about the book. (Prepositional)

Six endings, one word. Every Russian noun does this, and adjectives and pronouns agree along with it.

When you're unsure, run down this checklist; the first match wins:

Is it the subject? → nominative.
Is it the direct object? → accusative.
Is there "of", possession, нет, or a number? → genitive.
Is it the recipient (to whom)? → dative.
Is it the means, or after с (with)? → instrumental.
Is it a location or topic after a preposition? → prepositional.

You don't have to learn the cases in any fixed order; every chapter stands on its own. But if you want a route, this one builds up naturally:

1. Nominative — the subject
2. Accusative — the direct object
3. Genitive — possession, “of”, absence
4. Dative — the recipient
5. Instrumental — means & company
6. Prepositional — location & topic

Start with the nominative and accusative (the subject–object backbone of every sentence), add the genitive for "of" and absence, then layer on the dative, instrumental, and prepositional. Practice them mixed together in the exercises.