Here is a summary of when to use the six Russian cases. Remember, you can see how to form the individual cases by checking the related section. When you are studying, you may find it useful to have this page open, so you can quickly check how each case is formed.
Summary of Russian cases:
Nominative Case - The Subject.
Accusative Case - The Object.
Dative Case - The Indirect Object. ("to" in English)
Genitive Case - Indicates Possession ('s in English)
Instrumental Case - Indicates how something was done ("by" or "with" in English)
Prepositional Case - Used after "in", "at", "about".
For Example
In the sentence "Adam gave a flower to Anna".
- "Adam" is the subject.
- "flower" is the object.
- "Anna" is the indirect object.
In the sentence: "We live in Moscow"
- "We" is the subject.
- "Moscow" would be used in the prepositional case.
In the phrase: "Adam's book"
- "Adam's" would be in the genative case.
- "book" could be the subject or the object, depending on the context.
The order of these words would be reversed in Russian.
In the sentence: "We went to Moscow by car"
- "We" is the subject.
- "Car" would be used in the Instrumental case.