Russian Genitive Plural

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Welcome to the worst case in Russian :-)

Web sites dealing with Russian grammar give only some of the rules regarding the genitive plural (at least those I've encountered). This page lists those rules, as well as some I've found by experimenting - stumbling upon strange words in the dictionary and running them through the ever-so-useful morphological analyzer by Sergei Starotsin. Be warned that almost every single rule has exceptions...

I'm not a native Russian speaker, so I'm not sure 100% of some of the information here. Corrections or additions will be appreciated.

The genitive plural of a noun seems to have little to do with its gender, declension class or accent. In nouns with regular plural forms, the genitive plural depends on the ending of nominative singular. In nouns with irregular plurals, the genitive plural is derived from the plural stem. Such nouns will be discussed separately.

The nouns in the examples have the accented vowels marked in red and followed by their English meaning.

Regular Nouns (based on nominative singular)

• Nouns ending in hard consonants take the ending -ов (masculine words) :

студент → студентов student

Remember the spelling rule regarding ц : is the last syllabe stressed, then -oв, else -eв

отец → отцов father

месяц → месяцев month

• Nouns ending in й take the ending -ев or -ёв (masculine words) :

музей → музеев museum

край → краёв edge (end-accented)

• Nouns ending in soft sign or hushes (ж ш ч щ) take the ending -ей (masculine or feminine

words ):

словарь → словарей dictionary (end-accented, masculine)

мягкость → мягкостей softness (feminine)

нож → ножей knife (end-accented)

день → дней

• Nouns ending with accented -ья or -ьё also take -ей ( feminine or neuter words) :

семья → семей family

бельё → белей linen, laundry

ружьё → ружей

• Nouns ending with unaccented -ья or -ье take the ending -ий :

печенье → печений cookie

варенье → варений jam

• Nouns ending in -мя take the ending -ён :

имя → имён

время → времён

• Finally, other nouns ending in a vowel remove the vowel, leaving a soft sign if necessary (neuter or feminine words) :

слово → слов word

неделя → недель week

(the few neuter nouns I know ending in -е take -ей for some reason)

• Nouns ending in -ие, -ия or -ея are left with the ending -ий (neuter words) :

здание → зданий building

шея → шей neck

• Nouns having a consonant cluster before the final vowel, may insert a fill vowel before the last consonant.

• If either of the last two consonants is a velar (к г х) the vowel will be о:

кухня → кухонь kitchen

полка → полок shelf

• It is affected of course by the spelling rules and the previous consonant:

чашка → чашек cup

девушка → девушек

тройка → троек a group of three

• Otherwise, the vowel will be -е- (regardless of hardness or softness of previous consonant):

кресло → кресел armchair

письмо → писем

Whether or not to insert a vowel, is pretty much uncharted territory. My experience shows the following:

If the last consonant in the cluster is к, л, н or ц, insert a vowel as in the examples above.

• In addition, nouns ending in a consonant+ня lose softness of the н (the form кухонь above is an exception to this): песня → песен song

For other consonant clusters don't use a fill vowel:

государство → государств nation

Irregular Nouns (based on nominative plural)

• Some nouns have an irregular plural in -ья:

друг → друзья friend, брат → братья brother

• If the ending is accented, the Genitive Plural ending is -ей: друзей.
• Otherwise, the ending is -ьев: братьев.

• A number of words have nominative plural = genitive plural.

--Roger100 12:22, 11 Oct 2005 (CEST)