Only "Body" left before Gen. Plural
God help me. Gen. Plural is labeled with a skull image, how appropriate.
22 Comments
The word "мечта" (dream) does not have Gen. Plural at all ))) When I was young and went to schooI I asked my Russian teacher what is the Gen. Plural of this word. She said that this form does not exist and I should say "мечтаний" instead (but "мечтанье" is a separate word) )))
У рыб нет зуб... у рыбов нет зубов... у рыбьев нет зубьев... У РЫБЫ ЕСТЬ ЗУБЫ!!
(The proper Russian for "Fish don't have teeth" is "У рыб нет зубов". But of course they do have teeth :-))
Good luck with Genitive Plural! I guess the best way to learn that is to make a table of all the nouns you know by now, and look for their Genitive Plural forms. You'll find some patterns, so it won't be memorizing totally different stuff for every noun. We Russians do the same with the English irregular verbs, by the way :-) Make tables and drill them.
DON'T PANIC!!!
Seriously, though, don't panic, just read the explanations, do the exercises and give yourself a break if not everything clicks first time round. You will be okay, it isn't impossible!
Ps I always kind of liked gen. plural - I know, I'm weird. I just like things that are a bit different. I like especially how for feminine plurals you lose a sound for the plural, which blew my brain (in a good way) the first time I learned it!
2019
There are only 5 lessons in the skill, so it can't be that hard... right? Right?!?
Yeah I already started and it's fine. It's not really a thorough drilling in all the obscure exceptional situations. Mostly I was just trying to be funny. Genitive plural is though the absolute monster of the Russian noun case system.
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It's not that bad. Until I came across that skill and read the notes, I thought there were no rules for it. I've just been memorizing them for months.
Yep. The genitive plural is hell. Why did you do this, native Russians?
Genitive Plural: let's throw ов's and ей's everywhere! Just to annoy the foreigners!
In one of my many Russian grammar books, most cases are described nicely on a page or two. The genitive plural has a giant fold-out centerfold-like poster with exception after exception listed. AAARGH!
:-(. At least the singular is easy. Masculine and neuter is а/я, and feminine is ы/и.
Of course. It's got to explain the rules, and the exceptions to the rules, and the rules for exceptions to the rules, and the exceptions to the rules for exceptions to the rules...
"A Short Russian Reference Grammar" by I.M. Pulkina. Here's a picture of the centerfold: http://s29.postimg.org/8i67v3odz/photo_5.jpg. Looking through it again, this is an awesome book! There is a great table that shows prepositions and all the cases they govern with examples, e.g., "за", both accusative and instrumental, answering куда (accusative) vs. где (instrumental), purpose (instrumental, following verbs of motion).
