Russian Grammar
Nouns: Instumental Case

Instumental Case (With, By)
In Russian, the instrumental case is used to indicate how something is done. In English we commonly use the words "by" or "with" to do this. You would use the instrumental in a sentence like "we went there by car".

Forming the Instumental Case

Masculine Nouns:
1. If the noun ends in “ж”, “ц”, “ч”, “ш” or “щ”, then add “ем” if unstressed, if stressed add “ом”.
2. Other consonants, add “ом”.
3. Replace “й”, with “ем”, if stressed “ём”.
4. Replace “ь”, add “ем”, if stressed “ём”.

Feminine Nouns:
1. If the stem of the noun ends in “ж”, “ц”, “ч”, “ш” or “щ”, replace “а” with “ей”
2. Otherwise, replace “а” with “ой” (or rarely “ою”)
3. Replace “я” with “ей”, if stressed “ёй”.
4. Replace “ь” with “ью”.

Neuter Nouns:
1. Add “м”

The phrase "if stressed" in this case, means if the end of the word is stressed.
The exceptions for “ж”, “ц”, “ч”, “ш” or “щ” are to comply with the spelling rule.

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