Russian Grammar 107 – Genitive Case

The nouns in genitive case answer the question “Кого? Чего?” – Of whom? Of what?
The main idea of the genitive is to show where the person or the thing belongs to or what it relates to. In English would be very similar to genitive case the use of the preposition “of”.

Example:

окно дома – the window of the house
коробка конфет – the box of candies.

Usage of genitive case.

The genitive is used after the verbs хотеть (to want), искать (to look for), ждать (to wait for), просить (to ask), требовать (to demand), желать (to be willing to), бояться (to be afraid of), достигать (to achieve) AND with nouns designating abstract and indefinite objects.

Examples:

я хочу шоколада – I want some chocolate
Он бриться пауков – He is afraid of spiders
Они достигли своей цели – They have achieved their goal

The genitive is also used after the words нет (don’t have), есть (I have), не будет (will not have), не было (didn’t have), добраться до (to get to), доехать до (to drive to).

Examples:

У неё нет ключей – she doesn’t have keys
У меня не было денег – I didn’t have any money
Как мне добраться до центральной площади? – how do i get to the main square?

How to form the genitive case.

Add -а to masculine nouns ending in a hard consonant (стол – стола)  and to neuter nouns ending in -о (окно – окна)
Add -я to masculine nouns ending in -й , -ь (край – края, штрудель- штруделя) and neuter nouns ending in -е, -ие (поле – поля,  соревнование – соревнования)
Add -и to feminine nouns ending in -я, -ь (ночь – ночи)
Add -ы to feminine nouns ending in – а (голова – головы)

Exception 1:

Because of the spelling rules, you should use the ending – и instead of -ы in feminine nouns ending in hard – к, -г, -х or -ж, -ш.

Example:

нога – ноги, крошка – крошки.

Exception 2: 

Because of the spelling rules, you should use the ending -a instead of -я in masculine nouns ending in -ч, -щ.

Example:

плащ – плаща, скотч – скотча.

Exception 3:

Maculine nouns ending- а, -я follow the same pattern as feminine nouns ending in -а, -я.

Example:

папа – папы.

Genitive case for plural nouns:

Add -ов to masculine nouns ending in a consonant.

Exceptions are nouns like брат, лист which get the ending – ьев.

Example:

мост – мостов, хвост – хвостов, брат – братьев, лист- листьев.

EXERCISE: 107 Genitive case | NEXT: 108 Dative case