Thread: The ultimate Russian noun-endings list

I've been trying to make the ultimate Russian noun-endings list/table. You can see here what I've got so far: http://bit.ly/11oJjno

What that table is, is the following.

The table represents the endings of nouns for every possible noun-ending in Russian. The goal is to have a complete list of those, the ultimate list. (including exceptions, which I will add later on)

Below you can see an example of a noun that ends with -а in the nominative case. (the dictionary case)

That ending is the first row in my table.

Code:

Case Singular Plural

Nominative	маши́на	маши́ны
Genitive	маши́ны	маши́н-
Dative       	маши́не	маши́нам
Accusative	маши́ну	маши́ны
Instrumental	маши́ной	маши́нами
Prepositional	маши́не	маши́нах

However I've run into some problems:

1. The first one is that there are two noun-endings missing. I've marked those fields in light-blue.

2. A second issue is that I haven't listed all noun-endings yet. As you can see, all the endings for "-yo" are missing and marked by a question mark. Apart from that I also haven't listed the noun-endings that end with different consonants yet, because different consonants can render different noun-endings per case.

3. The third problem is the biggest issue, namely that the grammar books I have don't agree on the noun-endings that should be used per case.

I'm drawing from different sources. Academic books, novice books, Wikipedia and sites like Master Russian. The problem is that sometimes their listings of noun-endings per case differ from each other, which makes it hard for me to assemble/compile the ultimate Russian noun-ending list, because I'm not an expert in the Russian language, so I can't say: "This source is correct and this source isn't."

I'm hoping that people here can help me complete this table/list and correct any errors. This table would be useful to me and perhaps other people as well, because none of the sources I've mentioned has the complete list/table. I haven't found such a list anywhere, so I'm trying to compile it from different sources to be as thorough as possible.

I don't want to jump to conclusions here, but just so you know, there is definitely a right and wrong ways to organize the declension. Here is how I started:IMG_1172.jpg. This is the way my book showed it to me. This is the pure instillment of hell. Do not do it this way. There are other slightly less bad ways, such as breaking it into things like first and second and third declensions, I had no luck understanding those either. Now, I don't know where you are at in your learning, but to be sure: You SHOULD see a connection between а and я, о and е, ы and и, у and ю. If you don't (and even if you do) watch every video here, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcq...gPcUW3h2I1BGJg. Here my own 2 master charts for declining nouns and adjective.(Sorry they're blurry, the idea is still there though) IMG_1173.jpgIMG_1174.jpg. I got a little lazy through it and stopped writing(for example): ому and ему both, and just wrote ому, because to me the ему is implied and I now it is also there.
Edit: Okeydoke, wow, I actually looked at it, you seem to have everything in order. ill just show myself out.

Thanks for that Hoax. I wasn't aware that there is a different and perhaps better way to do noun-declensions. However currently my table is the only way I understand how to make Russian noun-declensions.

My intention is to complete the table and then memorize it. It's a lot to memorize, but this should do the trick right?

One issue I've already run into is that the endings -ya and -iya can be confused with each other. For example take the name Maria, in Russian it's spelled Mariya. You'd then think that the ending is -iya right? But I've been told it isn't -iya, but just -ya. Which means that the name Mariya follows the declination pattern of -ya and not -iya. That can be confusing.

Nonetheless this table is the only way I currently understand to make Russian noun-declensions and for that reason I'd like to complete/finish the list.
The first step would be to find out which endings go in the two missing spots which are marked in light-blue. A second step would be to finish the -yo row and find out to which declension-type and gender it belongs. A third step would be to add missing endings, split consonant endings and check for errors in the table.

The way you're doing it is much better for words like время -> времени, the way I'm doing it, that is an exception that I would have to look up (after making a mistake). I believe that ие in accusative plural is N or G (animacy) , and the inst plural is in fact иями (бессмертие - Wiktionary). As for the ия thing, I still don't quite know which or why, but the ия (rather than just a я) is for places/countries. I saw someone incorrectly say "руссия", and a native speaker responded that that meant "land of русс', so. I think ия and ие is also used with abstract ideas, or things that aren't a physical object? That's the one I don't understand. I find it's easier(perhaps lazier) to, rather than try to memorize them by sitting there and looking them over, to just make said master sheet, and keep a copy of it on every mobile device, and always have it when you need it, eventually it just sticks from being right there for so long. Riding the bus or something and think of a word that you want to decline? Pull out the list. That will give that specific ending an experience, and an example for you to easily remember it. Like if you were just thinking, and wondered what the genitive of дверь is, you look at the sheet... and figure out... двери!, that work makes things stick a bit more for me at least.

Just in case: http://www.ipages.am/files/companies...%20Grammar.pdf

Declension starts on page 67.


Also, you can check declension here: http://www.russlanar.com/analyse

and here:

http://www.morfologija.ru/%D1%81%D0%...0%D0%BC%D0%B0/

Originally Posted by Heart Of A Lion

One issue I've already run into is that the endings -ya and -iya can be confused with each other. For example take the name Maria, in Russian it's spelled Mariya. You'd then think that the ending is -iya right? But I've been told it isn't -iya, but just -ya. Which means that the name Mariya follows the declination pattern of -ya and not -iya. That can be confusing.

In fact it doesn't:
s: Мария - Марии - Марии - Марию - Марией - Марии
p: Марии - Марий - Мариям - Марий - Мариями - Мариях
s: демократия - демократии - демократии - демократию - демократией - демократии
p: демократии - демократий - демократиям - демократий - демократиями - демократиях
As you can see, declension is the same.


Suffix -иj- is used in abstract nouns:
биография
демократия
концепция
and so on.

The -j- part of -я belongs to the suffix here, so the actual structure of these words is:
биограф + иj + а
демократ + иj + а
концепц + иj + а

Declension:

s: биография (иj + а) - биографии (иj + и, j dropped) - биографии (иj + и, j dropped) - биографию (иj + у) - биографией (иj + ей) - биографии (иj + и, j dropped)
p: биографии (иj + и, j dropped) - биографий (иj + null) - биографиям (иj + ам) - биографий (иj + null) - биографиями (иj + ами) - биографиях (иj + ах)



I don't know why Wiktionary says Мария has the root Мари- and the ending -я. IMHO, it looks more like that Мария consists of Мариj + а.
We cannot say -иj- is a suffix here, since Мария is just a name, not something abstract, and since Мар- without -иj is meaningless. But all -иj- words follow the same declension pattern, no matter if -иj- is a real suffix or just a part of the root.

In fact, there are lots of -ия female names:

s: Анастасия - Анастасии - Анастасии - Анастасию - Анастасией - Анастасии
p: Анастасии - Анастасий - Анастасиям - Анастасий - Анастасиями - Анастасиях

s: Валерия - Валерии - Валерии - Валерию - Валерией - Валерии
p: Валерии - Валерий - Валериям - Валерий - Валериями - Валериях

s: Евгения - Евгении - Евгении - Евгению - Евгенией - Евгении
p: Евгении - Евгений - Евгениям - Евгений - Евгениями - Евгениях

and so on.

They all decline in this way.

Originally Posted by Heart Of A Lion

As you can see, all the endings for "-yo" are missing and marked by a question mark.

s: ружьё - ружья - ружью - ружьё - ружьём - ружье
p: ружья - ружьев - ружьям - ружья - ружьями - ружьях
(подчёркнуто ударение)

Originally Posted by xXHoax

I believe that ие in accusative plural is N or G (animacy) , and the inst plural is in fact иями (бессмертие - Wiktionary).

I've added these endings to the table. Thank you.

Originally Posted by xXHoax

I find it's easier(perhaps lazier) to, rather than try to memorize them by sitting there and looking them over, to just make said master sheet, and keep a copy of it on every mobile device, and always have it when you need it, eventually it just sticks from being right there for so long. Riding the bus or something and think of a word that you want to decline? Pull out the list. That will give that specific ending an experience, and an example for you to easily remember it.

That's a good idea. I've stored the table as an Excel sheet (the open LibreOffice version .ods) and mobile devices have apps to open such documents, so I will simply put that file on my phone. That way I can memorize, learn and practice everywhere.

Originally Posted by xXHoax

Like if you were just thinking, and wondered what the genitive of дверь is, you look at the sheet... and figure out... двери!, that work makes things stick a bit more for me at least.

When I look at my table, then I see that дверь ends with -ь and when I then look at the genitive singular for that ending, I see -я, so then according to my table I get дверя. Which is a bit confusing, because I got that row of endings from the following Wikipedia page, which also lists exceptions under the table. So perhaps дверь follows the declension pattern of an unlisted exception on Wikipedia?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_grammar

Originally Posted by Lampada

Just in case: http://www.ipages.am/files/companies...%20Grammar.pdf

Declension starts on page 67.


Also, you can check declension here: RussLanar Analyser | learning, grammar

and here:

http://www.morfologija.ru/%D1%81%D0%...0%D0%BC%D0%B0/

Thank you Lampada, those are very useful and comprehensive resources, which I will use for sure.

Originally Posted by RedFox

In fact it doesn't:
s: Мария - Марии - Марии - Марию - Марией - Марии
p: Марии - Марий - Мариям - Марий - Мариями - Мариях
s: демократия - демократии - демократии - демократию - демократией - демократии
p: демократии - демократий - демократиям - демократий - демократиями - демократиях
As you can see, declension is the same.


Suffix -иj- is used in abstract nouns:
биография
демократия
концепция
and so on.

The -j- part of -я belongs to the suffix here, so the actual structure of these words is:
биограф + иj + а
демократ + иj + а
концепц + иj + а

Declension:

s: биография (иj + а) - биографии (иj + и, j dropped) - биографии (иj + и, j dropped) - биографию (иj + у) - биографией (иj + ей) - биографии (иj + и, j dropped)
p: биографии (иj + и, j dropped) - биографий (иj + null) - биографиям (иj + ам) - биографий (иj + null) - биографиями (иj + ами) - биографиях (иj + ах)



I don't know why Wiktionary says Мария has the root Мари- and the ending -я. IMHO, it looks more like that Мария consists of Мариj + а.
We cannot say -иj- is a suffix here, since Мария is just a name, not something abstract, and since Мар- without -иj is meaningless. But all -иj- words follow the same declension pattern, no matter if -иj- is a real suffix or just a part of the root.

In fact, there are lots of -ия female names:

s: Анастасия - Анастасии - Анастасии - Анастасию - Анастасией - Анастасии
p: Анастасии - Анастасий - Анастасиям - Анастасий - Анастасиями - Анастасиях

s: Валерия - Валерии - Валерии - Валерию - Валерией - Валерии
p: Валерии - Валерий - Валериям - Валерий - Валериями - Валериях

s: Евгения - Евгении - Евгении - Евгению - Евгенией - Евгении
p: Евгении - Евгений - Евгениям - Евгений - Евгениями - Евгениях

and so on.

They all decline in this way.

That is a great response to the issue I've been wondering about. You explain it well and with enough detail to get to the root of the issue. Thank you for that.

I hope I will be able to memorize all these type of complexities that are within the Russian language.

Originally Posted by Heart Of A Lion

When I look at my table, then I see that дверь ends with -ь and when I then look at the genitive singular for that ending, I see -я, so then according to my table I get дверя. Which is a bit confusing, because I got that row of endings from the following Wikipedia page, which also lists exceptions under the table. So perhaps дверь follows the declension pattern of an unlisted exception on Wikipedia?: Russian grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Дверь is feminine. You should use "Third decl. f." row of your table.

дверь - двери - двери - дверь - дверью - двери; двери - дверей - дверям - двери - дверьми - дверях

Originally Posted by RedFox

s: ружьё - ружья - ружью - ружьё - ружьём - ружье
p: ружья - ружьев - ружьям - ружья - ружьями - ружьях
(подчёркнуто ударение)

I've added the endings to my table.

I do have some questions about that though.

1. To which gender does that row belong?

2. To which declension type does that row belong?

3. Can the accusative plural be nominative or genitive? (N or G, in my table)

I'm guessing from the way -yo is declined, that it is of neuter gender and falls within the second declension type, with accusative plural being N or G. However I prefer to get that confirmed by people who know more about this than I do.

Originally Posted by RedFox

Дверь is feminine. You should use "Third decl. f." row of your table.

дверь - двери - двери - дверь - дверью - двери; двери - дверей - дверям - двери - дверьми - дверях

Ah! Aha!

Thank you so much, I completely overlooked that there was a second soft-sign in my table. Which makes it obvious that I still need to memorize it.

And I'm glad that the row I referred to in my table wasn't full of errors.

I intend to make this table as complete as possible, including all exceptions. I intend to do the same for pronouns and adjectives and also conjugations of Russian verbs. It's going to be quite a task.

Why am I doing this? Well I want to map Russian grammar for myself. And I want to do it in the most complete, yet minimalistic way, so that it is as comprehensible to me (and perhaps others) as possible. Because Russian is complex and this will make it simpler for me, because after all these tables are done, I can start to memorize them and that will allow me to move forward and make solid progress.

Originally Posted by Heart Of A Lion

I've added the endings to my table.

I do have some questions about that though.

1. To which gender does that row belong?

2. To which declension type does that row belong?

3. Can the accusative plural be nominative or genitive? (N or G, in my table)

I'm guessing from the way -yo is declined, that it is of neuter gender and falls within the second declension type, with accusative plural being N or G. However I prefer to get that confirmed by people who know more about this than I do.

Neuter gender.
Well... I don't remember formal grammar rules, so have no idea what declension type it is.

I guess, animate nouns should, as usual, use genitive as accusative plural, but I can't recall any animate -ё noun to prove that. Maybe, there is no one such noun.
The fact that most of the -ё nouns just has no plural forms:

Usual nouns; plural forms exist: остриё - острия, ружьё - ружья, цевьё - цевья, копьё - копья...
Collective nouns, no plural: бабьё, дубьё, зверьё, мужичьё, дурачьё, вороньё, комарьё, бельё, жильё, старьё, сырьё...
Verbal nouns, no plural: мытьё, нытьё, житьё, питьё, шитьё, быльё...

Originally Posted by RedFox

Neuter gender.
Well... I don't remember formal grammar rules, so have no idea what declension type it is.

I guess, animate nouns should, as usual, use genitive as accusative plural, but I can't recall any animate -ё noun to prove that. Maybe, there is no one such noun.
The fact that most of the -ё nouns just has no plural forms:

Usual nouns; plural forms exist: остриё - острия, ружьё - ружья, цевьё - цевья, копьё - копья...
Collective nouns, no plural: бабьё, дубьё, зверьё, мужичьё, дурачьё, вороньё, комарьё, бельё, жильё, старьё, сырьё...
Verbal nouns, no plural: мытьё, нытьё, житьё, питьё, шитьё, быльё...

I think I've figured out the declension type using Wikipedia. In this link and section, it mentions -yo as an exception in the nominative form, under exception rule number 2: Russian grammar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So I think -yo is of the second declension type in neuter gender. I also think that due to this, for -yo, that N or G also applies for it in the accusative plural form.

I will edit my table accordingly and if anyone can confirm this, then that would be great.

I updated the table, using the information that people in this thread provided: http://bit.ly/1uRrQiD

I will keep updating the table until it's as complete as possible, including exceptions which will be added later. I will post future updates of it in this thread as well - for people who are learning Russian or want to use it as a reference.

Excellent effort, Heart of A Lion! Two points I would add that have already been made by others:

(1) Things look a little simpler once you understand animacy/inanimacy rules for determining the accusative form. (After all, there are many instances where an animate and inanimate noun have nearly identical declensions, with the accusative form being the only significant difference.)

(2) Similarly, things get simpler the better you understand "hard" vs. "soft" consonants -- because, again a hard-stem noun and a soft-stem noun may have nearly identical declensions, apart from the fact that, say, the inst. pl. is spelled -ами instead of -ями.

I would also avoid trying to figure out "how many declensions are there in total?", and instead recognize that there are, perhaps, 3 or 4 or 5 "major declensions" (depending on how you define "declension"), plus a bunch of minor exceptions that apply to a limited category of nouns. For example, the word котёнок ("kitten") has a "weird" plural -- it's котята, and not котёнки as you might logically expect. Does this mean that котёнок represents a separate declension? Maybe, maybe not -- I mean, the singular forms are otherwise logical and follow the usual pattern for a masc. and animate noun. And once you get past the stem change (from котён- to котят-), the plural endings are also "otherwise logical." Then you've got singular neuter nouns ending in -мя, like время, "time." There's an argument for calling such nouns a separate declension -- but then again, there are only TEN such nouns in the entire modern language, and at least half of these ten are used rather rarely and aren't at all important for a beginner to know. And then you've got truly oddball words like путь ("way, path"). Arguably, it's an irregular word that doesn't represent a declension in itself -- and shouldn't necessarily get its own line in your table -- because no other words in the language follow the same pattern. You could say the same about мать (gen. sg. матери) and дочь (gen. sg. дочери), "mother" and "daughter." Both words are weird and irregular -- and you've absolutely gotta learn them, because they're so common -- but they don't represent a bigger declension pattern that you need to worry about -- they're odd variants on the basic "Feminine Type II" declension, or whatever you wanna call it.

P.S. I would probably drop the дитя row from your table. The plural form дети ("children") is in its own category as a must-know irregular declension, but the singular дитя is nowadays used pretty much only in the nominative, and mostly in poetic or proverbial contexts.

Then you've got singular neuter nouns ending in -мя, like время, "time." There's an argument for calling such nouns a separate declension -- but then again, there are only TEN such nouns in the entire modern language

At least, I've always heard that there are ten of them -- but I couldn't list all ten if you held a gun to my head! Let's see, there's the words for "time," "name," "tribe," "burden," "flame," "banner," erm... "udder"... "stirrup," um...

Can't remember what the other two are, but supposedly, there's ten.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

At least, I've always heard that there are ten of them -- but I couldn't list all ten if you held a gun to my head! Let's see, there's the words for "time," "name," "tribe," "burden," "flame," "banner," erm... "udder"... "stirrup," um...

Can't remember what the other two are, but supposedly, there's ten.

имя, время, племя, знамя, пламя, бремя, семя, стремя, темя, вымя

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

Excellent effort, Heart of A Lion! Two points I would add that have already been made by others:

(1) Things look a little simpler once you understand animacy/inanimacy rules for determining the accusative form. (After all, there are many instances where an animate and inanimate noun have nearly identical declensions, with the accusative form being the only significant difference.)

(2) Similarly, things get simpler the better you understand "hard" vs. "soft" consonants -- because, again a hard-stem noun and a soft-stem noun may have nearly identical declensions, apart from the fact that, say, the inst. pl. is spelled -ами instead of -ями.

I would also avoid trying to figure out "how many declensions are there in total?", and instead recognize that there are, perhaps, 3 or 4 or 5 "major declensions" (depending on how you define "declension"), plus a bunch of minor exceptions that apply to a limited category of nouns. For example, the word котёнок ("kitten") has a "weird" plural -- it's котята, and not котёнки as you might logically expect. Does this mean that котёнок represents a separate declension? Maybe, maybe not -- I mean, the singular forms are otherwise logical and follow the usual pattern for a masc. and animate noun. And once you get past the stem change (from котён- to котят-), the plural endings are also "otherwise logical." Then you've got singular neuter nouns ending in -мя, like время, "time." There's an argument for calling such nouns a separate declension -- but then again, there are only TEN such nouns in the entire modern language, and at least half of these ten are used rather rarely and aren't at all important for a beginner to know. And then you've got truly oddball words like путь ("way, path"). Arguably, it's an irregular word that doesn't represent a declension in itself -- and shouldn't necessarily get its own line in your table -- because no other words in the language follow the same pattern. You could say the same about мать (gen. sg. матери) and дочь (gen. sg. дочери), "mother" and "daughter." Both words are weird and irregular -- and you've absolutely gotta learn them, because they're so common -- but they don't represent a bigger declension pattern that you need to worry about -- they're odd variants on the basic "Feminine Type II" declension, or whatever you wanna call it.

P.S. I would probably drop the дитя row from your table. The plural form дети ("children") is in its own category as a must-know irregular declension, but the singular дитя is nowadays used pretty much only in the nominative, and mostly in poetic or proverbial contexts.

Good points.

Your post illustrates the need to list the exceptions that don't even follow the "exception patterns" like they're listed on Wikipedia for example. It's going to be quite a task to compile all that, but like I said, I intend to make this thing as complete as possible.