Thread: Cases, my worst enemy.

Russian cases confuse me. If anyone has any tips on learning them it would be greatly appreaciated.

Can you describe the problems with some more detail? I can see how, coming from a language which knows (almost) no cases (English), cases as such become problematic. My native German has four cases itself, so for me the problem lies in knowing which case to use when it is different from German usage. Which preposition goes with which case(s), where do German and Russian not agree on the case to be used.

Robin

Originally Posted by SouthsideRMK

Russian cases confuse me. If anyone has any tips on learning them it would be greatly appreaciated.

I've heard that learning grammar and practice lead to good results.

I love the cases! The cases mean free word order, free word order means free mind! Free mind means wide horizons and "fluid", lively speech. The cases are your best friends!

whatever you do, don't try and memorize charts and tables of declensions.
Instead, read, read, read and they'll slowly (um...very slowly) start to sink in.
Concentrate on recognizing and understanding sentences, don't try and make your own sentences until you have a firm grip on the cases.

Originally Posted by sperk

whatever you do, don't try and memorize charts and tables of declensions.
Instead, read, read, read and they'll slowly (um...very slowly) start to sink in.
Concentrate on recognizing and understanding sentences, don't try and make your own sentences until you have a firm grip on the cases.

A little bit of memorisation never killed anyone...
At least enough so that you get the general principles..

But after that, reading is probably the key...

I find cases tricky, but at least I've got plenty of previous experience of learning foreign languages.

I am sure that once you DO master the cases, Stargazer's comment is true - it makes for more freedom of constructing the sentences.. But how to get there...

Russian cases confuse me.

Russians invented cases in revenge for English tenses. Uh-ha-ha