Russian Language Grammar
Nominative
The cases are discussed with reference to:
A. Basic function
B. Special constructions
C. Verbs governing the cases
D. Prepositions governing the cases (including the so-called adverbial and verbal prepositions)
Remark: Many prepositions (в, за, на, но, etc.) have a variety of meanings. Some govern more than one case; this is discussed in detail in the "Prepositions" chapter.
BASIC FUNCTION
The nominative case expresses the subject or the predicate of a sentence:
Мальчик читает. |
The boy reads. |
Москва – город. |
Moscow is a city. |
Он старый. |
Не is old. |
SPECIAL CONSTRUCTIONS
The nominative is used as the logical object in expressions of possession:
У брата есть ключ. |
(My) brother has a key. |
Ваша книга у меня. |
I have your book. |
VERBS
The only verbs which cannot be used with the nominative are the impersonal: хотеться, знобить, etc.
PREPOSITIONS
The following prepositions govern the nominative case in rather special constructions:
3a in the expression что за – what (kind of).
Что это за книга? |
What (kind of a) book is this? |
Что за ветер! |
What a wind! |
По is followed by the nominative case of the numerals два, три, четыре, 200, 300, 400 in "distributive" constructions.
Дети получили по два яблока. |
The children received two apples apiece. |
В каждой каюте по три пассажира. |
There are three passengers in each cabin. |
У нас по четыре офицера на роту. |
We have four officers per comраnу. |
The same applies to the compound numerals 22, 23, 34, etc.
Note: See distributive usage of пo in "Prespositions".
In a few instances, the preposition в is followed by nouns with nominative case endings (a remnant of an old grammatical form):
пойти в гости – to visit; произвести в офицеры – to give a commission (officer's)