Duo Russian Grammar

11) Partitive

As you know, the Genitive case has lots of uses in Russian.

One of them expresses an amount of something:

  • чашка чая = a cup of tea
  • тарелка риса = a plate of rice
  • корзина яблок = a basket of apples

With mass nouns it is also used to express "some" unspecified amount of that stuff when used instead of the Accusative:

  • Я хочу воды = I want (some) water.
  • Дайте, пожалуйста, риса. = Could I have some rice, please? (literally, "Give me, please, some rice").
  • Хочешь сока? = Want some juice?

Note that this usage is only characteristic for situations when you ask or hypothesize about using "some or other amount" of a substance. You cannot actually say that you are drinking "воды" right now—but you can say that you want some (or that you sipped some in the past—with a perfective¹, of course).

чашка чаю

«Чай» has an alternative Partitive form «чаю»:

  • Хочешь чашечку чаю? = Want cup of tea?

It is optional. Actually, many short masculine nouns that denote substances used to have such form. However, «чай» is, probably, the only one where the form is immensely popular in spoken speech and does not sound old-fashioned or downright archaic.

стакан

Russian differentiates between a number of drinking vessels. Стака́н is what you call a "glass" in English: typically, a cylindrical vessel made of glass, with no handle. However, if you mean a measurement unit (quite popular in cooking), it corresponds to the English word "cup". In Russian you use not a cup or rice or flour but a "glass" of rice or flower.

  • a beer or a wine glass is «бока́л»
  • a smaller wine glass is «рю́мка»
¹ Perfective is an aspect. Russian has verbs of two flavors: those that denote "processes" and those that mean "events" (events are never used in the present). I would argue that aspect is the main culprit for consumption verbs here. You can want "воды" forever, but you aren't "drinking" it at any specific moment. Semantically, "some" water only becomes a real amount when you are done, not while you are still at it.

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