Quote Originally Posted by Gottimhimmel View Post
I decided to put this question into the beginners section because it's a pretty simple question. Usually inflectional endings of nouns don't confuse me, but I've never really caught onto one trend.

This trend is the Zero, or null ending of the genitive plural for nouns, E.g) nom sing: сло́ва (slóva) gen pl: сло́в (slóv)

Как бы мы говорим, без слов?

Could I please have some light shed on the rules for when a genitive plural will use the null inflection?


Thanks a bunch guys and have yourselves a good day.
Generally - it is very simple: any noun which has -а/-я or -о ending in its dictionary form, takes zero ending in genitive plural.
There are a few exceptions, though: ухо - ушей, око - очей (око is an archaic word for глаз). And also some masculine nouns tend not to take -ов in genitive plural (носок - без носков, some people say без носок; сапог - размер его сапог; ботинок - цвет моих ботинок and some others).

But as for the general rule - just use what I wrote above. If it is -я then it will be a zero ending (always, the same as for -а), but a soft sign will be used to keep softness: баня - бань, дыня - дынь, тётя - тёть, дядя - дядь (although dictionaries say "дядей" is possible, but I think it is outdated), Катя - Кать, пуля - пуль etc.