Thread: ...+ов & ...+nothing

When you use the genitive case with some nouns. How do you know if the word is changed for example like this : "книги -> книг" or to this "дураки -> дураков".

You should be able to know by the context.

У меня много книг.
I have many (of) books.

Using the genitive after много, I always imagine that I am substituting the zero endings for fem. and the OB type endings masc. for the word in english "of".

You need to learn the rules about the endings. That means, you need to learn each noun's GENDER, and you need to learn its DECLENSION PATTERN.

Once you know if a noun is masc., fem., or neuter, then you will know which of the possible spellings of, for example, genitive plural endings, you would apply - -ов, -ев, -ей, -ий, or the zero ending. In your two examples you have a feminine noun and a masculine noun. For the most part these two groups take different endings for the g.pl. although they happen to take the same one -и in the nom.pl. that you cite.

Just something interesting:

In some southern dialects of Russian, they just use the gen. pl. ending "-ов" for masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns.