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    Nominative Case (Именительный падеж)

    The nominative case is the "dictionary form" of Russian nouns. It's used for subjects of sentences and predicate nouns.
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    When to Use Nominative

    1. Subject of the sentence

    Студент читает.
    The student reads.
    Кошка спит.
    The cat sleeps.

    2. Present-tense naming predicate (быть omitted)

    Он учитель.
    He is a teacher.
    Москва — столица.
    Moscow is the capital.
    Nominative Endings
    Common dictionary singular endings and nominative plural patterns; exceptions are explained below

    Masculine

    masculine

    Endings:

    Singular: usually consonant, -й, -ь
    Plural: usually -ы, -и; some -а, -я

    Examples:

    студент → студенты, учитель → учителя
    student → students, teacher → teachers

    Feminine

    feminine

    Endings:

    Singular: usually -а, -я, -ь
    Plural: -ы, -и

    Examples:

    мама → мамы, тётя → тёти
    mom → moms, aunt → aunts

    Neuter

    neuter

    Endings:

    Singular: -о, -е
    Plural: -а, -я

    Examples:

    окно → окна, море → моря
    window → windows, sea → seas
    Key Questions Answered by Nominative

    Questions:

    Кто? (Who?) - for people/animals
    Что? (What?) - for things/concepts

    Examples:

    Кто читает? → Студент читает.
    Who reads? → The student reads.
    Что лежит на столе? → Книга лежит.
    What lies on the table? → The book lies.
    Memory Tips
    • Nominative is the "default" form - what you find in the dictionary
    • Use nominative for the grammatical subject, which is not necessarily the person doing an action.
    • Ordinary Russian prepositions do not govern the nominative.
    • Present-tense naming sentences with omitted быть normally use nominative for both subject and predicate noun. With past/future быть, instrumental predicates are common.

    Build singular and plural forms

    Start with the dictionary singular; there is no extra nominative ending to attach. Identify gender before adding an adjective. A final consonant or -й usually indicates masculine, -а/-я usually feminine, and -о/-е usually neuter. These are clues, not definitions: папа (dad) is masculine, so say мой папа (my dad), not моя папа.

    For regular plurals, remove the singular ending, if there is one, and select the plural ending. Masculine hard stems usually add -ы; masculine -й/-ь and feminine -я/-ь usually give -и. Feminine -а normally becomes -ы. Neuter -о becomes -а, and -е usually becomes -я. Work through both the noun and its modifier:

    If needed, swipe sideways to see all columns.

    Singular → pluralHow / English
    новый студент → новые студентыстудент + ы; new student → new students
    новый музей → новые музеимузе- + и; new museum → new museums
    новая тетрадь → новые тетрадитетрад- + и; new notebook → new notebooks
    новая книга → новые книгикниг- + и; new book → new books
    новое окно → новые окнаокн- + а; new window → new windows
    синее море → синие морямор- + я; blue sea → blue seas

    Do not write книгы: after г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ, write -и rather than -ы. Thus книга → книги (book → books), рука → руки (hand → hands), врач → врачи (doctor → doctors). This spelling rule changes the written vowel; it does not make every preceding consonant soft.

    Some plurals must be learned separately: учитель → учителя (teacher → teachers), дом → дома (house → houses), друг → друзья (friend → friends), человек → люди (person → people), ребёнок → дети (child → children). Учителя is an established nominative plural, not the regular -и pattern for every masculine -ь noun. Stress distinguishes учителя́ (teachers) from учи́теля (of a teacher).

    Make adjectives and pronouns agree

    Hard-stem adjectives commonly have masculine -ый/-ой, feminine -ая, neuter -ое, plural -ые; soft-stem adjectives use -ий, -яя, -ее, -ие. Compare синий шарф / синяя сумка / синее море / синие сумки (blue scarf / bag / sea / bags). Plural agreement does not distinguish gender: мой новый словарь → мои новые словари (my new dictionary → my new dictionaries); моя новая тетрадь → мои новые тетради (my new notebook → my new notebooks).

    Masculine -ий does not always signal that soft pattern: русский → русская / русское / русские (Russian) and хороший → хорошая / хорошее / хорошие (good) have spelling-conditioned forms. Do not extrapolate синяя or синее to every adjective ending in -ий; learn the agreeing forms together.

    Subjects and naming predicates

    Find the grammatical subject, not simply the first noun: Книгу читает студент means “The student is reading a book.” Студент remains nominative despite coming last. Personal pronouns can fill the same slot: Он читает / Они читают (He reads / They read). The verb agrees with the subject.

    Separate pointing from agreement: Это новые книги means “These are new books”; это stays unchanged in this identifying construction. Эти новые книги лежат здесь means “These new books are lying here”; эти modifies plural книги. Do not replace это automatically just because the thing being identified is plural.

    Check yourself

    Choose a form before opening each answer.

    1. Новый or новая: ___ дверь открыта?

    Новая дверь открыта. “The new door is open.” Дверь is feminine despite -ь, so новая agrees with it.

    2. Make новая книга plural.

    Новые книги. “New books.” Remove -а; after к use -и, not -ы. Новая becomes the plural новые.

    3. Complete: Мои ___ работают здесь. (учитель)

    Мои учителя работают здесь. “My teachers work here.” Учителя is the learned nominative plural; мои and работают already indicate a plural subject.

    4. Name the usual forms: Она ___; она была ___. (врач)

    Она врач; она была врачом. “She is a doctor; she was a doctor.” Zero-copula naming normally uses nominative; past быть commonly takes an instrumental predicate. Врач stays grammatically masculine even when referring to a woman.

    Targeted practice

    Practise noun–adjective agreement first, then move to plural subjects.