What and Where To: The Accusative Case

The direct object: the thing the verb lands on

Some verbs are not complete on their own. Reading reads something, buying buys something, seeing sees something. The something is called the direct object, and in Russian it goes into a case you have not used as an ending yet: the accusative, винительный падеж. You ask for it with «Кого? Что?» — "whom? what?".

English marks its objects almost entirely by position: "the dog bit the man" and "the man bit the dog" use the same words in a different order. Russian marks them by ending, which is why it can afford to move words around much more freely later on. Because Russian has no articles either, the ending is often the only signal in the sentence that a noun is an object and not a subject — so it is worth getting right early, and that is what this hour does.

Here is the encouraging part. For most nouns the accusative looks like a form you already know. Only two things change: a feminine noun in -а or -я swaps that ending for -у or -ю, and an animate masculine noun borrows the genitive ending -а or -я. Every other noun keeps its dictionary shape exactly. Learn two endings and you have the whole case.

• Я чита́ю кни́гу. I am reading a book. (feminine -а becomes -у) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я чита́ю кни́гу. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Я ви́жу стол. I can see the table. (masculine inanimate — no change) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я ви́жу стол. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Она́ лю́бит му́зыку. She loves music. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Она́ лю́бит му́зыку. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Мы покупа́ем хлеб. We are buying bread. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Мы покупа́ем хлеб. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:

Four accusative shapes, and only two of them move

Masculine inanimate nouns do not change: стол → стол, телефо́н → телефо́н, фильм → фильм. Neuter nouns do not change either: окно́ → окно́, письмо́ → письмо́, я́блоко → я́блоко. If a noun denotes a thing and is masculine or neuter, its accusative is simply the dictionary form. That covers most of the objects and food in this lesson.

Feminine nouns in -а change to -у, and those in -я change to -ю: кни́га → кни́гу, су́мка → су́мку, вода́ → во́ду, Росси́я → Росси́ю. This is the one ending that does real work every single day, and it is completely regular — there are no exceptions to learn. Notice that it applies to animate and inanimate nouns alike: ма́ма becomes ма́му just as су́мка becomes су́мку.

The one genuinely new idea is animacy. A masculine noun that denotes a living being takes the genitive ending in the accusative: студе́нт → студе́нта, брат → бра́та, врач → врача́. So «Я вижу стол» and «Я вижу брата» differ by exactly one letter, and that letter is the whole rule. This is the minimal version of the animacy rule, and it is deliberately minimal: animate plurals, feminine nouns like дочь, and the handful of exceptions are systematised in Lesson 12. Today you need one thing — an animate masculine object ends in -а.

In the plural the same logic holds: an inanimate plural accusative is identical to the plural nominative (столы́, о́кна, ру́чки), and an animate plural accusative is identical to the plural genitive (студе́нтов, враче́й). Recognition only for now.

• Я ви́жу стол. I can see the table. (masculine, inanimate — unchanged) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я ви́жу стол. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Я беру́ ру́чку. I am taking the pen. (feminine -а becomes -у) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я беру́ ру́чку. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Я ви́жу окно́. I can see the window. (neuter — unchanged) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я ви́жу окно́. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Я ви́жу бра́та. I can see my brother. (animate masculine — the genitive ending) Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я ви́жу бра́та. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:

Где? or Куда? — one preposition, two cases

This is the heart of the lesson, and it is the idea that makes Russian feel like a system rather than a list. Lesson 5 taught you that «где?» — where something is — takes в or на plus the prepositional: Я живу́ в Москве́, Она́ в магази́не, Мы на почте́. This lesson adds the missing half: «куда?» — where something is going — takes the very same в or на, but with the accusative: Я еду́ в Москву́, Она́ идёт в магази́н, Мы идём на по́чту.

The preposition does not change. The place does not change. Only the last vowel of the noun changes, and that vowel is chosen by the question you are answering. English collapses both into one word, "where", which is exactly why this pair needs drilling rather than translating: «Где ты?» and «Куда́ ты идёшь?» are not two ways of asking the same thing, and a Russian hears the difference instantly.

Which of в and на a place takes is a property of the place, and you settled it in Lesson 5: на почте́, на вокза́ле, на рабо́те, but в шко́ле, в па́рке, в Москве́. That choice carries straight across to the direction sense — на по́чту, на вокза́л, в шко́лу, в парк. Two rules, applied in order: first pick the preposition the place wants, then pick the ending the question wants.

Two escape hatches are worth knowing now. An indeclinable noun never changes, so «в кино́» means both "at the cinema" and "to the cinema" and only the verb tells you which. And the adverb домо́й ("homewards") takes no preposition at all — Я иду́ домой — just as its partner до́ма ("at home") takes none.

• Где ты? — В шко́ле. Where are you? — At school. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Где ты? — В шко́ле. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Куда́ ты идёшь? — В шко́лу. Where are you going? — To school. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Куда́ ты идёшь? — В шко́лу. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Где А́нна? — На почте́. Where is Anna? — At the post office. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Где А́нна? — На почте́. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Куда́ вы е́дете? — На по́чту. Where are you going? — To the post office. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Куда́ вы е́дете? — На по́чту. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:

Eight verbs that need an object, and what they demand

The verbs of this lesson are видеть, ждать, покупать, давать, брать, есть, пить and готовить. All eight are transitive: they take a direct object, and that object is in the accusative. "Government" is the word this course uses for the case a verb demands, and every verb record in this lesson states it. Learning a verb with its government from day one is what stops you guessing later.

Five of the eight are conjugation I, but none of them is plain. ждать drops the -а- of its stem: жду, ждёшь, ждёт. давать keeps its -ва-: даю, даёшь, даёт. брать loses a vowel and picks up a soft sign: беру, берёшь, берёт. пить rebuilds its stem entirely: пью, пьёшь, пьёт. покупать is the only straightforward one: покупаю, покупаешь, покупает. видеть and готовить are conjugation II, and видеть is one of the -еть verbs that behave like -ить — ви́жу, ви́дишь, ви́дит, with the д turning into ж before -ю.

есть "to eat" belongs to neither conjugation: ем, ешь, ест, еди́м, еди́те, едя́т. It is spelled exactly like есть "there is" from Lesson 4 and exactly like the third person singular of быть, so the three are told apart by context and by nothing else. That is normal Russian, not a defect of the course.

Three honest warnings. First, видеть has no imperative anyone actually uses — when you want to say "look", say смотри́ or смотри́те. Second, ждать with an animate masculine object takes the genitive shape: ждать бра́та, not ждать брат. Third, the person you give something to is in the dative case, and the dative is Lesson 9 — until then, давать gives you the thing given, and that is enough for a great many sentences.

• Я жду ма́му. I am waiting for Mum. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Я жду ма́му. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Он ест мя́со. He is eating meat. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Он ест мя́со. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Она́ гото́вит ры́бу. She is cooking fish. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Она́ гото́вит ры́бу. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian:
• Мы покупа́ем я́блоки и сок. We are buying apples and juice. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: Мы покупа́ем я́блоки и сок. Listen in Russian: Slow in Russian: