Russian Grammar
Nouns: Nominative Case

The Nominative Case. (The subject of a sentence)

The Russian nominative case is used for the subject of a sentence. In the sentence “I love her”, the word “I” is the subject. The nominative case is the dictionary form for nouns, so there is nothing special to learn here.

The Nominative Plural

The only time you need to change the ending is to form the plural. In English we make a plural by adding “s”. In Russian, in the nominative case, you make a plural by using the letters “и”, “ы”, “я” or “а”.

For masculine nouns: If the word ends in a consonant, add “ы”.
Replace “й” with “и”
Replace “ь” with “и”

For feminine nouns:
Replace “я” with “и”
Replace “ь” with “и”
Replace “а” with “ы” (unless previous consonant is Г, К, Х, Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ then replace with "и" as per the spelling rules.)

For neuter nouns:
Replace “о” with “а”
Replace “е” with “я” (don't forget the spelling rules)

Some examples:
студент (student) becomes: студенты (students)
газета (newspaper) becomes: газеты (newspapers)
здание (building) becomes: здания (buildings)

Pronouns of the Nominative Case.

Here are the personal pronouns used in the nominative case.

Я   -   I
Ты   -   You (informal)
Он   -   He, It (m)
Она   -   She, It (f)
Оно   -   It (n)
Мы   -   We
Вы   -   You (formal, or plural)
Они   -   They

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