Prepositional Question

I think I pretty much get this. Masculine nouns you add an 'e', (or drop soft sign then add an 'e'). This is with the exception of a few such as саду.

For female/neuter nouns, drop the vowel and add an 'e'. If its a soft sign remove it and add an и. This is where my confusion comes in below - this word goes from

упражнение to в упражнении. Now this i understand as it is because и was the second to last letter so the final letter also changes. So why does this word not change? Огайо should this not change to Огайи??

Thanks if someone can clear this up.

Thanks
Andy

Огайо isn't a Russian word, it's a loanword, and loanwords are indeclinable unless they happen by luck to have a 'Russian' ending.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andrewsco

I think I pretty much get this. Masculine nouns you add an 'e', (or drop soft sign then add an 'e'). This is with the exception of a few such as саду.

For female/neuter nouns, drop the vowel and add an 'e'. If its a soft sign remove it and add an и. This is where my confusion comes in below - this word goes from

упражнение to в упражнении. Now this i understand as it is because и was the second to last letter so the final letter also changes. So why does this word not change? Огайо should this not change to Огайи??

Thanks if someone can clear this up.

Thanks
Andy

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Foreign words are often not decilned if they do not map well into Russian gender/declension system.
All foreign words ending with "-о" are not declined.
Радио, метро, кимоно etc - these words remain unchanged regardless of case/number.

сад takes the usual prepositional in е. But after the prepositions в and на when used to express place, sometimes time, and sometimes state of being, many masculine nouns end in у. So you would say в саду, in the garden, but о саде, about the garden.

Not the question you asked, but I thought I'd clear that up. Assuming I'm correct :wink:

EDIT: I got on the comp w/ Russian font and fixed the post.

The endings -ия, -ие --> -ии
-ио is not a Russian ending, therefore doesn't change.