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Nouns & the Case System

Six cases: nominative
книга (nom.) / книгу (acc.)
book (subject) / book (object)
kniga / knigu
Nominative = subject; Accusative = direct object
нет книги (gen.)
there is no book
net knigi
Genitive case: absence/negation with нет
дать другу (dat.)
to give to a friend
dat' drugu
Dative case: indirect object (to/for)
с другом (instr.)
with a friend
s drugom
Instrumental case: with / by means of
говорить о книге (prep.)
to talk about the book
govorit' o knige
Prepositional case: о + prepositional = about
Masculine nouns: стол
день
музей
table
Feminine nouns: книга
земля
площадь
book
Neuter nouns: окно
поле
имя
window
книги (gen. sg.) / книг (gen. pl.)
of a book / of books
knigi / knig
Genitive singular and plural forms
в школе / в школу
at school (prep.) / to school (acc.)
v shkole / v shkolu
Same preposition в + different case = different meaning