Thread: Russian cases

Hi, i'm learning Russian in school and trying to revise for my year 10 exam. However i don't really understand the Animate Accusative case. I don't know the endings or when to use it. Any help is greatly appriciated.

accusative animate is IDENTICAL to genetive! Use the genetive endings! You know those, right? Use the animate accusative when your direct object (the object that you are doing something to) is animate, ie alive.

I see a dog -> accusative animate (same as genetive)
I see a McDonalds Restaurant -> accusative inanimate (no genetive)

Good question, but kv, your answer

> animate, ie alive.

is incomplete. Grammatical "animate" is not necessarily the same as "alive." For example: ace, as in a deck of cards, is treated as animate. Mushrooms, труп, мертвец.

Plus, the "animate" object has to be of the masculine gender. Fem. animates are declined normally: Я вижу девушку (accusative sg.). Also what about дитя?

The plural is simpler - there are only two categories - animate and inanimate. Here you would say я вижу девушек.

What I'm not sure of myself, at this point, is where насекомое fits into all this. If I see one of them do I say я вижу насекомого? And what if a bunch - я вижу насекомых?

I don't have my Wade Russian Grammar at hand, but I'm sure Pravit can fill in the details!

Yes, I am very silly. You are of course right. But the masculine accusative animate is like the genetive!

Originally Posted by chaika

What I'm not sure of myself, at this point, is where насекомое fits into all this. If I see one of them do I say я вижу насекомого? And what if a bunch - я вижу насекомых?

I am guessing it is
Я вижу насекомое. Accusative = Nomnitive for Neuter Animate

In an earlier post, I tried saying
Я купил русского животного
but everybody kept saying that it should be
Я купил русское животное.

Good question, but kv, your answer

> animate, ie alive.

is incomplete. Grammatical "animate" is not necessarily the same as "alive." For example: ace, as in a deck of cards, is treated as animate. Mushrooms, труп, мертвец.

Plus, the "animate" object has to be of the masculine gender. Fem. animates are declined normally: Я вижу девушку (accusative sg.). Also what about дитя?

The plural is simpler - there are only two categories - animate and inanimate. Here you would say я вижу девушек.

What I'm not sure of myself, at this point, is where насекомое fits into all this. If I see one of them do I say я вижу насекомого? And what if a bunch - я вижу насекомых?

I don't have my Wade Russian Grammar at hand, but I'm sure Pravit can fill in the details!

I KNEW he would do that! Which is why I always put in my little chaika-bane every time I explain animate/inanimate.

Okay thanks alot people.

So for animate neuter nouns, the accusative is still the same as the nominative?
I saw it in Chekhov.

Is there a such thing as a neuter animate noun? The only one I can think of is животное, but I'm not sure if that counts, since it declines like an adjective.

Originally Posted by saibot

Is there a such thing as a neuter animate noun? The only one I can think of is животное, but I'm not sure if that counts, since it declines like an adjective.

We had this discussion just less than a week ago, I think.

How about really smart robots? Or clams? Venus fly traps?

Originally Posted by Geoduck

How about really smart robots? Or clams? Venus fly traps?

Робот is animate masculine. And the word is of Slavic origin, it is from Czech, but you can see the link to the Russian Работать

Originally Posted by TATY

So for animate neuter nouns, the accusative is still the same as the nominative?
I saw it in Chekhov.

The accusative singular of animate nouns will be like the form of the nominative. Ex.: Я вижу животное, насекомое
Whereas the accusative plural of them resembles the genetive ("Я вижу животных, насекомых.").

Darn. Apparently clams are not animate. The ones around here sure are...the'll squirt you right in the face as you walk by them.

Originally Posted by chaika

Grammatical "animate" is not necessarily the same as "alive." For example: ace, as in a deck of cards, is treated as animate. Mushrooms, труп, мертвец.

BTW, Труп is inanimate (but мертвец is animate)

Только через мой труп!

Why are they animate when no anima (from Latin "soul") left inside?

I think there is a reason to distinguish such words only in the following case:

труп, мертвец - masculine gender (connotation of recent death)
тело - neuter gender (connotation of death irrelative of some criteria)