Learn how to use the dative case
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| Привет Всем. С Вами Светлана. Hi everybody! I’m Svetlana. |
| Welcome to RussianPod101.com’s Русский язык за три минуты. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Russian. |
| In the last two lessons, we learned about the nominative and accusative cases as well as personal pronouns. In this lesson let’s go ahead and take a look at another grammar case of Russian nouns. |
| We will start with the dative case which designates the recipient of an action. For example: |
| Сергей помогает Татьяне. Sergey helps Tatyana. One more time, slowly. |
| Сергей помогает Татьяне. |
| Tatyana is a female name put in dative case. Sergey’s help is addressed to Tatyana. |
| Dative case usually answers the questions To Whom? and For What? and very often comes with the prepositions K (“To” in English) and ПО, Согласно (on, along, according to). For example: |
| Я иду к врачу. I am on my way TO the doctor. |
| Я иду по дороге. I am walking along the street. |
| Great!!! Now let’s have a look how endings will change in dative case according to the gender and number. |
| Masculine nouns which end with consonants should add the ending “У” |
| Друг - Другу |
| Friend - to the friend |
| If it ends with “Й” or a soft “Ь” we’ll add “Ю” |
| Край - Краю |
| edge- to the edge |
| Учитель - Учителю |
| Teacher - to teacher |
| Я купил подарок другу. |
| I bought a present to my friend. |
| Feminine nouns will also change. If they end with “А” and “Я”, you change those endings with “E” vowel. For example: |
| Сестра - Сестре |
| Sister - to sister |
| Таня - Тане |
| If feminine noun ends with “Ь” we’ replace it with “И” |
| Печь - печи |
| Oven - for oven |
| Тарелка для печи. Plate for oven, for example. |
| And finally we have the neuter nouns. |
| we should replace the ending “O” with “У” and “E” with “Ю” For example: |
| Окно - окну |
| Window - for window |
| Море - морю |
| Sea - to sea |
| Мы едем к морю. We are going to the sea. |
| Do you want to know how we modify the personal pronouns in dative case? Let’s have a look. |
| me Мне |
| you Тебе |
| him Ему |
| her Ей |
| us Нам |
| them Им |
| Do you want to say: Give me chocolate? in russian? Let’s do it! |
| Дай мне шоколад! |
| Excellent!!! Try to practice it by replacing the pronoun “ME” or “To me” with other pronouns in dative case. |
| Well done for this lesson. We’ve already learned the half of the essential Russian grammar for nouns. Congratulations! Please take you time, go back and listen to our lessons again if you need. It will probably take some time to memorise it, but you will see how naturally you will sound once you understand how to put the nouns in a right case. |
| In this lesson, we learned how to properly use nouns in dative case. It is so helpful when you want to do something for somebody or towards something. In our next lessons we will learn how to express belonging of one object. So, be ready for another challenge. |
| See you soon in our next Русский язык за три минуты lesson. Пока Пока |
15 Comments
HideHello Barry and David,
Thank you very much for your feedback, and concerns regarding the translation of the phrase "Сергей помогает Татьяне."
Both of you are right, the English translation "Sergey helps Tatyana" is not in the accusative case, although while creating the lesson we opted for the most natural translation.
Thank you again, and if you have any further questions or suggestions, feel free to leave us a comment.
Cheers,
Igor
Team RussianPod101.com
24 May 2020
Hello! Thanks for doing these lessons on grammar. I really appreciate them.
Back to David's question about the example "Sergey helps Tatyana" = "Сергей помогает Татьяне" listed as dative case. I agree with him that the English is in the accusative case. Sergey (subject) helps (verb) Tatyana (direct object). To make Tatyana the indirect object, you could rewrite the English as "Sergey gives Tatyana help". This way, the direct object becomes 'help', and Tatyana becomes the recipient. I don't doubt that the Russian is in dative case, but I believe the English translation might not reflect the dative case effectively.
If you believe I'm misunderstanding, I'll gladly accept your clarification. All your other examples made sense to me for dative case.
Hello Imsure1200q,
It is because they have different gender. Печь - is feminine noun, and учитель is masculine. Therefore, different rules are applied.
Unfortunately, there is no special rule to figure out the gender of nouns ending in a soft sound, you have to remember which one is masculine and which one is feminine. 😄
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
Why does pech' and uchitel' have a soft letter at the end, but don't get the same endings?
nominative: pech', uchitel'
dative: pechi, uchitelyu
How do I even figure out the gender if they have the same endings?
Hello Peter,
Don't be afraid! It's just sounds hard, but in reality everything you need is just practice. ?
Wish you good luck!
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
Wow, this is all so very confusing to me. I'd be afraid to try speaking russian for fear of sounding uneducated! I guess this is one instance where english is easier to learn! LOL
Hello David
The main function of the dative case is to point out the indirect object or to indicate the recipient (receiver) of an action.
The main questions of the dative case are "to whom?" "for whom?" "to what?" and "for what?".
“Sergey helps Tatyana” = “Сергей помогает Татьяне” (Sergey helps to whom? To Tatyana).
Let's take the sentence "Ivan presented flowers to Masha."
"Ivan" is the subject (the person who is performing an action);
"flowers" is the object acted on by Ivan, and it is put in the accusative case;
and "Masha" is the indirect object. "Masha" is the receiver of Ivan's action. Therefore, in Russian, we put the word "Masha" in the dative case.
Please, let me know if you have more questions.
Best regards、
Elena
Hello,
I am having trouble understanding the difference between accusative and dative case.
"I see the teacher" = "я вижу учителя." is accusative case, but
"Sergey helps Tatyana" = "Сергей помогает Татьяне". is dative case.
Could you explain why these two sentences are different cases? It seems like both involve the subject performing an action to an object. Thanks in advance. I'm really enjoying this website!
Hello Edwin,
Please be free to ask any other question!
Elena
Team RussianPod101.com
Hello Elena,
Now that you have explained, that actually makes sense :sweat_smile:. I just didn't realise it because I was focussing on the Dative case, as it being the subject of the video.
Thanks!
Edwin