Duo Russian Grammar

37) Genitive Plural

The formation of Genitive Plural

All other forms (except the Nominative) are the same for all plural nouns, regardless of gender. The Genitive is the other exception. Here is how it is formed:

  • -а, -я, -о nouns: just remove the last vowel sound. Extends to -ия and -ие nouns (which become -ий). A vowel is inserted if a consonant cluster forms at the end. We will address a few common cases of fleeting vowels later in the course.

    • ма́ма, неде́ля → мам, неде́ль
    • сло́во, окно́ → слов, о́кон
    • фами́лия, мело́дия → фами́лий, мело́дий
    • ко́шка → ко́шек

  • hard consonant: typical “masculine” nouns ending in hard non-sibilant consonants get the ending -ов. Those in “-й” get -ев, and so do nouns in “-ц” when the ending is unstressed (which won't help you much).

    • стол, оте́ц, го́род → столо́в, отцо́в, городо́в
    • ме́сяц → ме́сяцев

  • soft consonant: feminine and masculine nouns ending in -ь or hushes (Ж, Ш, Щ, Ч) will get -ей as the ending. Neuter nouns ending in -е also use this pattern.

    • ночь, крова́ть → ноче́й, крова́тей
    • учи́тель, муж → учителе́й, муже́й
    • мо́ре → море́й

  • «и́мя» and «вре́мя» become имён, времён (though, for «се́мя» and «стре́мя» it is «семя́н» and «стремя́н»)

Not so easy

  • be careful around nouns that form plurals irregularly, like друг →друзья́. Here are the genitive plurals of «друг», «мать», «дочь», «сын», «стул», «брат», «лист» and «де́рево» :

    • друзе́й, матере́й, дочере́й, сынове́й
    • сту́льев, бра́тьев, ли́стьев, дере́вьев

Levels

  1. 1) Alphabet 1
  2. 2) Basics 1
  3. 3) Phrases 1
  4. 4) Единственное число
  5. 5) Name and polite "You"
  6. 6) Plurals
  7. 7) Where is it?
  8. 8) Animals 1
  9. 9) Genitive Case - 1
  10. 10) Possessive Modifiers 1
  11. 11) Partitive
  12. 12) Accusative Case: the direct object
  13. 13) Verbs Present 1
  14. 14) Infinitive, Likes and Dislikes
  15. 15) Food
  16. 16) Adjectives Introduction
  17. 17) Conjunctions
  18. 18) There is
  19. 19) Questions
  20. 20) People 1
  21. 21) Around you
  22. 22) Prepositions and Places
  23. 23) Verbs Present 2
  24. 24) Time and Numbers
  25. 25) Family
  26. 26) People 1
  27. 27) Weather and Nature
  28. 28) Sport
  29. 29) Adjectives 1
  30. 30) Past & Infinitive
  31. 31) VLAD
  32. 32) Dative and Plurals
  33. 33) Reported speech
  34. 34) Perfective Verbs
  35. 35) I
  36. 36) Body and Health
  37. 37) Genitive Plural
  38. 38) Adjectives 2
  39. 39) Short and Long
  40. 40) Perfective verbs
  41. 41) Countries and Places
  42. 42) House
  43. 43) Reflexive
  44. 44) Time expressions 2
  45. 45) Imperative and Adverbs
  46. 46) Образовние
  47. 47) City and People
  48. 48) Imperative2
  49. 49) That Which
  50. 50) Technics
  51. 51) Future Simple
  52. 52) Being Instrumental
  53. 53) Placing Objects
  54. 54) Kitchen and Food
  55. 55) Speaking
  56. 56) Subjunctive
  57. 57) Compound Future
  58. 58) Prefixed Verbs of Motion
  59. 59) Arts & Entertainment
  60. 60) Together
  61. 61) Numbers 2
  62. 62) Adjectives 3
  63. 63) Plans
  64. 64) Prepositions 2
  65. 65) The Same
  66. 66) Fleeting Vowels
  67. 67) Measure
  68. 68) Business
  69. 69) Morphology
  70. 70) History & Fantasy
  71. 71) Participles
  72. 72) Computers & Internet
  73. 73) Adverbial Participles
  74. 74) Science
  75. 75) Politics
  76. 76) Spiritual
  77. 77) Some Spoken Patterns
  78. 78) Nothing Left
  79. 79) Crime and Justice