Thread: Cases again

Please help me correct my understanding of cases in this sentence. Спасибо.

В зтот вечер Сергей зашёл к соседям во время прогулки.
That night, Sergei stops to visit a neighbour while taking a walk.

Сергей зашёл - именительный падеж
this is the subject and the verb

В этот вечер - винительный падеж
the direct object

к соседям - дательный падеж
indirect object

во время - винительный падеж
?? why acc. case

прогулки - родительный падеж
?? why gen. case

Originally Posted by tohca

В этот вечер - винительный падеж
the direct object

во время - винительный падеж
?? why acc. case

"В этот вечер" is not a direct object, it is an adverbial phrase (adverbial modifier) which tells us when something happened. You must realise one thing: a noun which is a direct object cannot have a preposition before it. According to the definition found in Russian grammar books, a direct object is an object in accusative case without a preposition. The bolded part is an integral part of the definition.

"во время прогулки" is another adverbial modifier of time. Why accusative? Because the preposition "в/во" is always used with either accusative or prepositional cases. In this particular case, accusative is required.

Why is "прогулки" in genitive? Because it is "the time of a walk"

Consider the following example: "эпоха перемен" (age of changes). It follows the same pattern as "время прогулки". Notice that "перемен" (of changes) is in genetive.

If you want to say "We live during/in an age of changes" in Russian, you say "Мы живём в эпоху перемен". Notice that "эпоху" is in accusative. Why? Because the preposition "в" requires the accusative case when it is used with nouns describing periods of time (and in some other situations as well).

Generally speaking, certain prepositions in Russian require certain cases. You'll keep running into this fact all the time if you continue studying Russian.
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Edited to fix an error

В зтот вечер Сергей зашёл к соседям во время прогулки.
That night, Sergei stops to visit a neighbour while taking a walk.

Сергей зашёл - именительный падеж
this is the subject and the verb - right

В этот вечер - винительный падеж
the direct object
No. This sentence has no direct object. It's not that simple with cases (subject, object etc). Most of the time you have to remember which case is proper in which expression.
When the noun has a preposition, it is the preposition which determines the case, not the role in the sentence (and neither subject nor direct object can have a preposition). "в" requires either accusative, which would normally indicate direction, or prepositional which usually indicates location, but here it is accusative despite the expression really denotes location (in time). You simple have to memorize this.
Here you might also say "этим вечером" and that would be instrumental case.

к соседям - дательный падеж
indirect object
Here again it is the preposition which determines the case. "к" always requires dative.

во время - винительный падеж
See "в этот вечер".

прогулки - родительный падеж
?? why gen. case
Because "время" belongs to "прогулка".

Gee thanks guys! This is better than any Russian class money can buy. Yes I do hope to continue learning Russian until I can master it, god willing, that is.