For plural nouns, case is determined. Genitive plural

As in other forms, in genitive plural of nouns in each type of declination you can find several variants of endings.

In general, during the formation of this form the following pattern applies.

    If in the initial form (nominative singular) a word has a zero ending, then in the genitive plural the ending is usually non-zero:

    a house - many houses, a horse - many horses, a steppe - no steppes.

    If in the initial form the ending is non-zero, then in the genitive plural it will be zero:

    land - no lands, loop - no loops, business - no business, place - no places, brand - no brands, apple - no apples.

    Thus, the language seeks to get rid of the coincidence of the initial form and indirect forms of the noun.

note

Feminine and neuter nouns in -я, -ь follow the general rule and have a zero ending in the genitive plural form. The final -y in this form is not an ending, but is included in the base of the word: prophetic - no prophetic, hill - no hills, nesting - no nesting, outback - no outback, spear - no spears, food - no food, housewarming - no housewarming, pancake - no pancakes, coast - no coast, potion - no potion.

    However, in reality this pattern is not absolute. On the one hand, a number of masculine nouns with a hard consonant stem have a zero ending:

    one soldier - several soldiers; one Georgian - several Georgians, one gypsy - several gypsies.

    On the other hand, nouns with a non-zero ending in the initial form can also have a non-zero ending in the genitive case, for example:

    feminine words: share - several shares, size - several points; neuter words: swamp - several swamps, upper reaches - no upper reaches, bottom of the vessel - no bottoms, shaft - no shafts, face - several faces, point - no points, dress - several dresses, mouth - several mouths, awl - several awls.

In living speech, especially in common speech, two opposing trends are now observed.

Firstly, the ending -ov/-ev, inherent primarily in masculine nouns of the second declension, quite consistently replaces other endings (zero, -ey).

For example: in common parlance - a lot of people instead of normative many people; no places instead of normative no places.

    The latter tendency is strengthened by the fact that in the plural in other indirect cases all nouns have the same endings:

    about songs, about people, about fields, about nights, about kilograms.

Secondly, in common parlance one encounters the use of forms with a zero ending in cases where the literary language allows only forms with a non-zero ending.

For example: plow 10 hectares of land instead of the literary version - 10 hectares of land.

    All this requires special attention to the formation of the genitive plural form, especially since many of these options become an indicator of the level of a person’s speech culture. It is no coincidence that morphological errors in the formation of this form are used in language games, that is, intentionally - to create a comic effect ( How many people! Business! - in modern intelligentsia colloquial speech). Such errors are also played out in jokes, for example, in the dialogue between an illiterate passenger and an equally illiterate champion of correct speech:

    - There are no seats on the tram.
    - Not places, but places. You don't know the cases.
    - It doesn’t matter to you that we don’t know cases.

When forming the genitive plural in difficult cases, several factors must be taken into account.

1. For second declension nouns, the endings -ov/-v, -ey are distributed as follows:

    for masculine nouns with a base on a hard consonant, ts or th the main ending is -ov/-ev:

    many drivers, fighters, geniuses;

    For masculine and neuter nouns with a base on a soft consonant or hissing, the main ending is -е:

    many inhabitants, fields, cases;

    for nouns ending in -anin/-yanin (except for the word family man, which has no plural form at all), as well as for words master, boyar, master, Tatar- zero ending with cut-in:

    many Slavs, Tatars, Bars, citizens.

2. In masculine nouns of the second declension with a hard consonant stem, the zero ending and the -ov ending tend to be distributed as follows:

A) the ending -ov usually has most names of fruits, vegetables, etc.:

five tomatoes, five oranges, five eggplants(permissible - five eggplants);

b) usually have a null ending:

    names of paired items:

    a pair of boots, a pair of felt boots, a pair of boots, a pair of stockings, But: a pair of boots, a pair of boots(permissible - couple bot ), no rails(permissible - no rail); noun sock in the genitive plural it has two literary variants - no knitted socks And socks;

    names of nationalities with endings -н, -р:

    no gypsies, no Romanians, no Ossetians, But: no Bedouins, no Bushmen, no Svans;

    names of military personnel of various groups and branches of the military:

    no soldiers (!), no partisans (!); But: no sappers, no miners, no hussars And hussars, no dragoons And dragoons, no grenadiers And grenadiers, no cuirassiers And cuirassiers, no lancers And Uhlans;

V) nouns naming units of measurement ( volt, hertz, ohm etc.), usually have two forms in the genitive plural - with the ending -ov and with a zero ending. The zero ending is used in the so-called counting form of units of measurement, that is, when indicating a specific quantity or number of something:

100 volts, 100 amperes, 200 hertz, 200 ohms, 1000 roentgens etc.

    In nouns gram, kilogram, milligram, carat etc. in countable form, both forms are allowed - with the ending -ov and with the zero ending:

    10 grams And 10 grams; 10 kilograms And 10 kilograms; 5 carats And 5 carats

note

Forms with -s are perceived as more formal. Therefore, if both forms are accepted as acceptable in a literary language, then in written speech it is recommended to use variants ending in -ov. Not in countable form (not when indicating quantity), these nouns necessarily have the ending -ov.

Yes, on this collective farm they don’t count not only grams, but also kilograms of losses!

Not all names of units of measurement follow this pattern. The ending -ov is obligatory in any context for the following nouns:

acre (10 acres), hectare (10 hectares), inch (5 inches), liter (10 liters), meter (5 meters), kilometer (5 kilometers), millimeter (10 millimeters), centimeter (10 centimeters), pound ( 10 pounds), pound (10 pounds), foot (5 feet), yard (5 yards).

Masculine nouns with a base on a hard consonant, denoting monetary units, usually also have the ending -ov:

dollar (five dollars), dinar (five dinars) and etc.

3. For first declension nouns, nouns with an accent on the stem in the initial form usually have a zero ending:

a shoe is a pair of shoes, an apple tree is five apple trees, a heron is five herons, a wedding is five weddings, a town hall is several town halls, but: a share is five shares; uncle - no uncles and uncles; pin - five pins; handful - five handfuls and handfuls; baby - no baby, young man - five young men.

    Nouns with stress on the last syllable in the initial form can have the ending -е:

    candle - five candles, article - five articles, family - five families, tub - no tubs, melon - no melons, sheet - five sheets And five sheets, But: poker - five pokers, shaft - five shafts And shaft.

note to form the genitive plural form of nouns that have accentological variants in the initial form: barge And barge - no barges And barge, loop And loop - no loops.

4. For nouns used only in the plural, the most common ending is zero:

pasta - no pasta, money - no money, sawdust - no sawdust, ink - no ink.

    At the same time, a number of such nouns will have a non-zero ending. In this case, the ending -ov/-ev is typical for nouns with a base on a hard consonant, g, k, x and vowel:

    jeans - no jeans (!), clips - no clips, wallpaper - no wallpaper, bronchi - no bronchi.

    The ending -еy is common among nouns with a soft consonant as a base:

    mangers - no mangers, gangways - no gangways, mangers - no mangers (!), curls - no curls, harps - no harps.

    How peer options function: rake - no rake And no rakes, stilts - no stilts And no stilt, everyday life - no everyday life And Buden.

5. If the stem of a noun in its initial form ends in a combination of two consonants ( hollow, towel, song, doll), then when forming the genitive plural form with a zero ending, usually fluent vowels o and e appear between these consonants:

no dupe l, no towels, no songs, no dolls, no rose, no board (permissible - doso k), no villages, no sabel, no shoes, no kitchens, no twilight, there are no nozzles and nozzles, but: dachshund - no dachshund, morning - several mornings.

6. Pay attention to the formation of the genitive plural form in the following nouns:

Buryats - no Buryats and Buryats, son-in-law - no sons-in-law, comment - no comments, hoof - no hooves and hooves, adjustments - no adjustments, lower reaches - lower reaches and lower reaches, journeyman - no apprentices, e - no logs and towels, no Turks turk, ear - without ears, awl - no awls.

Difficult plural forms of nouns

Among the forms of nouns, the formation of which may be associated with certain difficulties, include the plural forms of the nominative case ( directors or directors, valves or valve?) and the plural forms of the genitive case of some nouns ( five grams And five grams, five oranges or five orange?)

1. Plural forms of the nominative case of nouns: directors or directors?

The nominative plural form of nouns is checked in dictionary order (according to the dictionary). See section "Word Check" on our portal. Please note: searching for a word in dictionaries is carried out using the initial form (nominative case, singular)!

The dictionary entry is read as follows: if the entry does not specifically indicate the plural form (mark pl.), then to form the nominative plural, the ending is used -And or -s. If a different ending is required (or options are acceptable), then a mark is placed: pl. -A. For example:

In the modern Russian literary language, variants fluctuate in the form named after. p.m. hours, number over 300 words. The center of the spread of inflexion -and I) are the areas of vernacular and professional language. In this regard, the forms on -and I) often have a colloquial or professional connotation: contract, mechanic, turner. The forms are on -s(s) more neutral and for most words meet the traditional norms of the literary language. However, in some cases the forms on -and I) have already replaced forms with -s(s).

In addition, you can remember a number of patterns that make it easier to choose the inflection (ending) of the nominative plural:

    Declined neuter nouns, the initial form of which ends in -KO, have an unstressed plural inflection. h. them. P. -And (faces, feathers, apples). The exception is nouns with stressed plural endings. h.: troops And clouds.

    The remaining neuter nouns are in the plural form. h. accept the ending -and I): swamps, fields, seas, windows.

    Form on -and I for some words it may be the only or predominant: side - sides (sides only in phraseological combination hands on hips); century - centuries (eyelids only in phraseological combinations for once, forever and ever, forever and ever), eye - eyes, meadow - meadows, fur - furs, snow - snow, haystack - haystacks, silk - silk.

    Shapes can have different meanings: tones(about color) and tones(about sound) of bread(about cereals) and breads(about baked bread), workshops And workshops(at the enterprise) and workshops(medieval organizations of artisans).

    Forms of nouns can differ in stylistic coloring: sides and outdated sides; Houses and outdated houses; stern and outdated stern; horns and outdated and poet. horns; varieties and outdated varieties; volumes and outdated then we, and thunder and poet. thunder; coffins and poet. coffin

    Finally, the forms of nouns can be equivalent and interchangeable: of the year And years(But: years of youth, severe hardships; nineties, zero years), workshops And workshops(at the enterprise), storms And storms.

    To resolve the issue of the status of a “controversial” form of a word (non-normative, variant, stylistically colored, etc.), in any case, you need to consult a dictionary.

Non-standard plurals are formed for words child - children, person - people, bottom - donya and some others.

2. Plural forms of the genitive case of nouns: five grams or five grams?

For most masculine nouns ending in a hard consonant ( orange, tomato, fly agaric, computer, sock), the ending is typical -s in the genitive plural form: oranges, tomatoes, fly agarics, computers, socks etc. A wide range of exceptions can be identified from this rule - similar nouns, but having a zero ending in the genitive plural form: one stocking - no stockings, one Ossetian - five Ossetians, one gram - five grams And five grams etc. Such words include:

    Names of people by nationality and by belonging to military units, mainly used in the plural forms in the collective meaning: Magyars - Magyars, Turkmens - Turkmens, midshipmen - midshipmen and midshipmen, partisans - partisans, soldiers - soldiers; This also includes the form p. p.m. h. Human.

    Names of paired items: boots - boots, eyes - eyes, cuffs - cuffs, shoulder straps - shoulder straps, stockings - stockings, epaulettes - epaulettes, boots - boots.

    Names of measures and units of measurement: 220 volts, 1000 watts, 5 amps, 500 gigabytes. If such names are used outside the “measuring” context (in other words, the genitive case form is not countable), then the ending is used -s: live without excess kilograms, not enough gigabytes.

It should be noted that the names of fruits, fruits and vegetables, which are masculine nouns, ending in a hard consonant ( orange, eggplant, tomato, tangerine), in the genitive plural form. hours have an ending -s: five oranges, a kilogram of eggplants, New Year without tangerines, tomato salad.

For some nouns, plural forms are formed. h. birth n. difficult; these are words dream, prayer, head. On the contrary, the words shchetz And firewood have no other forms except the plural form. h. birth case.

See: "Russian Grammar", M., 1980.

When using the nominative plural of nouns in practice, students often face the problem of writing endings correctly. The article provides the basic rules, exceptions to them and examples of spelling endings in such a case.

Features of the nominative plural of nouns

In the nominative plural case, nouns do not retain the differences in declensions characteristic of singular nouns, and have endings -s(s), -and I). I. p. nouns in the plural have the same syntactic meaning as in the singular and answer questions Who? What?

Examples of nominative plural forms are presented in the table:

Spelling of endings of nouns 2nd declension

The spelling of the endings of plural nouns of the nominative case of the 2nd declension depends on the characteristics of each individual word.

  • Ending -s(s)
    • Most monosyllabic nouns (tables, soups, juices);
    • Trisyllabic and polysyllabic nouns with stress in the middle of the word (librarians, contracts, pharmacists);
    • Nouns in which in the initial form the stress falls on the second syllable (salads, berets, watermelons);
    • Foreign nouns with a stem in -er/er(usually of French origin) (chauffeurs, stuntmen), as well as nouns of Latin origin with a stem in – tor/-ter/-sor (capacitors, lecturers, computers).
  • Ending -and I) have plural nouns:
    • Neuter nouns (windows, grains, pickles);
    • Nouns denoting paired concepts (sleeves, sides, shores);
    • Most two-syllable nouns with stress on the first syllable (cities, voices, boats);
    • Some monosyllabic nouns (houses, forests, varieties).

Exceptions

Masculine nouns of the 2nd declension with stem on -anin/-yanin form the form of the I. p. plural with the ending -e and truncation of the suffix (citizens, Kyivians, Drevlyans).Neuter nouns with a stem on -ko(except cloud, cloud, army) have the ending in the I. p. plural form -And (apples, coat hangers, glasses).

In order to solve the problem assigned to us, we will analyze each concept separately.

Noun

Noun- an independent part of speech. It denotes an object, and also answers the questions “who?” (if animate) and "what?" (if inanimate). Examples: table, chair, guitar, computer. In a sentence, it is most often the subject, less often the object, but it also happens that it is used as another member of the sentence.

Nouns can change by case (also by gender, number, and so on, but for the purposes of this task, this is not interesting to us).

Noun case

As we have already determined, adjectives change according to cases. In case you don’t know, then in general there is the following series of cases:

  1. Nominative.
  2. Genitive.
  3. Dative.
  4. Accusative.
  5. Instrumental.
  6. Prepositional. It is used only with a preposition, as is clear from its name.

Plural of a noun

A noun can be singular or plural. The singular number means that the object being spoken about is available in quantity of one, and plural means several items, some quantity greater than one.

Examples of the singular: table, chair, beauty, life, pencil, garden, T-shirt, book, balcony, door, guitar.

Examples of the plural: tables, chairs, beauties, lives, pencils, vegetable gardens, T-shirts, books, balconies, doors, guitars.

Solving the problem

So, now, knowing all the concepts, we will try to understand how to determine the case of a noun in the plural. To do this, we decline the word “handles” by case:

I.p. What? pens.

R.p. what? handles

D.p. to whom? handles

V.p. What? pens.

etc. how? handles.

P.p. about what? about pens.

It turns out that case questions do not change: they are the same for both the singular and the plural.

The case of a noun, as we see, in the plural is determined in the same way as the case in the singular: by prepositions in the sentence, endings and questions.

I. The main ending of masculine nouns is -ov/(-ov)-ev: mushrooms, cargo, directors, edges, museums, etc.

Some words have an -ey ending (residents, teachers, knives) and a zero ending (boots, townspeople).

1. The ending -ov/(-ёв)-ев is typical for those nouns whose final sound in the singular (nominative case) is a hard consonant (except zh and sh) or -j (in writing - the letter y): mushroom - mushrooms , cucumber - cucumbers, edge - edges, museum - museums, etc.

2. The ending -ey is characteristic of those masculine nouns whose final sound in the singular is a soft consonant (except -j) or w, w: dove - pigeons, acorn - acorns, executioner - executioners, knife - knives, baby - kids.

The same ending has a number of words ending in -a, -ya, masculine and general: dad, uncle, dad, raja, Chukchi, young man; mumble, idle talker, (not) equal, quiet, as well as male informal names with a base on a soft consonant or hissing: Volodya - Volodya, Seryozha - Seryozhey.

3. The zero ending is inherent in nouns, which are the following names:

a) paired items: boots - boot, boots - bot, felt boots - felt boots, eyes - eyes, leggings - leggings, moccasins - mokasun, shoulder straps - shoulder straps, boots - boots, stockings - stockings, boots - boots, epaulettes - a also hair - hair, teeth - tooth.

Exceptions: aiguillettes - aiguillettes, boots - boots, golfs - golfs, pima - pimov, horns - horns (but in phraseology - horn: God does not give a horn to a lively cow).

Some words of this semantic group have variant endings that are stylistically equivalent: kedy - kedov and ked; soskú - sock and sock, unty - unt and unt̀ov;

b) a number of nationalities, nationalities, tribes (including the names of disappeared peoples, as well as names used before), mainly with the final consonant -н or -р (singular): English - English, Armenians - Armenians, Bashkurs - Bashkur, Balkars - Balkar, Bulgarians - Bulgarians, Georgians - Georgians, Imeretins - Imeretuns, Lezguns - Lezguns, Magyars - Magyars, Moldovans - Moldovans, Ossetians - Ossetians, Romanians - ru myn, Tatars - Tatars, Turks - Turks, Khazars - Khazars , gypsies - gypsies.

Some words of this group have variant stylistically equivalent endings: Avárs - Avars and Avárovs, Buryats - Buryats and Buryats, Karelians - Karelians and Karelians, Sarmatians - Sarmatians and Sarmatians, Turkmens - Turkmens and Turkmens, Uyghurs - Uighurs and Uighurs.

But: Aisors, Arabs, Berbers, Bushmen, Hungarians, Kazakhs, Mongols, Negroes and others. etc.;

c) people at the place of residence in -anin/-yanin (for whom this suffix is ​​replaced in the plural by the suffix -an/-yan): city dweller - city dweller, alien - alien, Kiev resident - Kiev, villager - villager, yuzhanin - southerner, etc. .d.;

d) cubs, non-adult creatures with the suffix -onok/-yonok (changing in the plural to the suffix -am/-yat): wolf cub - wolf cubs, kitten - kittens, chicken - chickens, etc. Wed. and slang salazhonok - salazhat; according to the same pattern, also an oil can - butter, honey agaric - honey agarics,

Note Genitive case from imp, imp - imps, imps.

e) people by belonging to certain branches of the military, to a military unit, to certain political parties: partisans, soldiers, cadets.

A number of names based on the type of military service (including the former) and rank have variant stylistically equivalent forms: hussars - hussars and hussars, grenadiers - grenadiers and grenadiers, dragyns - draguns and draguns, cuirassurs - cuirassurs and cuirassors, lancers - ulans and ulans, midshipmen - midshipmen and midshipmen. Compare, for example: “On November 22, Seslavin sent me to clear the left side of the Vilna road with a hundred Sumy hussars, a platoon of dragoons of the Tver regiment and a dozen Donets” (A. Marlinsky); “...a Frenchman in a blue overcoat fought off the hussars with a bayonet” (L.T.); “In the evening of the same day, the tsar sent regiments of guards and dragoons in pursuit” (Buganov V.I. Peter the Great and his time);

e) some units of measurement: ampere, watt (kilowatt and others with -watt), volt, roentgen (and compound words with -roentgen). For example, “...natural background radiation is usually 15-20 microroentgens per hour...” (Koms. pr. 1990. May 12).

A number of names of units of measurement (in most cases belong to highly specialized vocabulary) have variant stylistically equivalent endings, ángström - ángstremov and ángström, arshin - arshunov and arshun, hertz - hertz and hertz, karat - karatov and karat, mikron - micron and micron and nek . etc. Wed, for example: “A ruby ​​in a ring worth eleven carats” (A.N.T.) and “According to official data, diamond production should have exceeded 500 thousand carats in 1965” (Abroad. 1966. January 21) .

In texts that are not strictly official, the nouns hectare, gram, kilogram can also have a zero ending (very common in live oral speech, in the author’s speech of fiction). Wed: “Sixteen thousand mothers will receive rations at dawn - One hundred and twenty-five blockade grams With fire and blood in half” (Berggolts O.F. From the Leningrad poem); “[Polar explorers] say that they have lost several kilograms of weight over these days” (Orlov V. Chronicle of a Drift), but: “More than 40 million hectares of crops are concentrated here” (Project 1965. March 31); “The first 415 kilograms of valuable nutritious food in dry form have been packed” (Zn. 1983. February 3).

In texts that are not strictly official, the literary norm allows for a zero ending in words denoting some vegetables and fruits: (kilo) apricot, orange, eggplant, tangerine, tomato.

II. 1. For neuter nouns, the main one is the zero ending: vedro - veder, delo - delo, housing - housing, building - buildings, window - windows, gun - ruzhey (words like building, gun, i.e. words with a stem in - j, refer to those nouns in which a fluent vowel appears before the zero ending in the genitive plural: i-, if the stress does not fall on the ending, and -e-, if the ending is stressed).

2. Some neuter nouns in the genitive case have the ending -ov/-ev. These include:

a) nouns in the plural forms of which -j- appears before the ending: bottom → donya, donyev, link → links, links, wing → wings, wings; log → logs, logs;

b) nouns in -ko (except for army, ear, ̀apple, ̀apple): drevko - drevkov, wheel - wheels, cloud - clouds, ozerkó - ozerkov, ochkó - glasses, shoulder - shoulders;

c) some nouns with a stem ending in -j (singular and plural); upper reaches - upper reaches, lower reaches - lower reaches (and lower reaches), tip - points, dress - dresses, razvod - razdyov, mouth - mouths, as well as the word bolotse (marsh).

Note. The words saucer, mirror, lake, railing, towel have a zero ending: saucer, mirror, pepper, towels.

Some words ending in -tse have variant endings, one of which, as a rule, is more common than the second (the more common below is given first): tree → small trees and trees, ring → rings and rings, spindle → spindles and spindles, bucket , tse → kopytsev and kopytets, lace → lace and lace, shilse → shiltsev and shilets. Wed, for example; “[Meresyev] allowed himself to eat only ten spoons and a few fibers of white, soft chicken meat” (Polevoy B.N. The Tale of a Real Man) and: “With a decrease in the amount of twist, the connection of individual elementary fibers is disrupted” (Anuchin S.A. and etc. Construction and maintenance of twisting machines); “The bulk of the trees we sell are obtained through the barbaric destruction of already scarce forests” (Lit. gazette. 1966. December 31) and: “... when the crowns of individual trees merge into a common closed canopy and the trees begin to experience mutual lateral shading, then a struggle arises over the light" (Morozov G. Teaching about oneself), etc.

III. For feminine nouns of the 2nd declension, the main ending is zero: (with) roofs, pines, apple trees, (without) poker, sisters, weddings, etc.

A small number of feminine nouns ending in -а/-я have the ending -е. It is received by words that have a group of consonants -gl-, -kl-, -hl- before the ending: (no) skittles, boucles, sakley, rokhlya, as well as the words share → doley, penya → peney, candle → candles (but in phraseology - candle: the game is not worth the candle).

A small number of words have variant endings: barzha - barzh and barzhey, karakulya - doodles and karakul, song - songs and songs, handful - handful and handful, sheet - sheet and sheets, pimp - pimps and pimps, shutter - shutters and shutters, aunt - aunts and aunts.

The ending -ey is also characteristic of feminine nouns with a soft consonant and sibilants (3rd declension): role - roles, fabric - fabrics, night - nights. Only the word sazhen has two forms: sazhen and sazhen.

As for nouns used only in the plural form, difficulties with choosing the correct form of the genitive case relate mainly to proper names. Therefore, common nouns of this type are not considered here, and those interested in the genitive case forms of proper names can be referred to the “Dictionary of Stresses for Radio and Television Workers” by F.L. Ageenko and M.V. Zarvy.

Rakhmanova L.I., Suzdaltseva V.N. Modern Russian language. - M, 1997.