Lesson 038

The Dative case with plural nouns

This lesson will teach to you form the Dative case with plural nouns.

To form the Dative case with plural Russian nouns, you need to replace the ending of the word depending on the last letter it has.

The words of all genders finishing in…

й, ь, я -> replace with ям
а, о -> replace with ам
е -> replace with ям, but
же, че, ше, ще -> replace е with ам
… any other consonant -> add ам

Examples

These are the same words you saw in the previous examples of forming the Dative case. Pay attention to their ending and try to memorize the principle.

дом – дома́м (house)
за́яц – за́йцам (hare)
нож – ножа́м (knife)
край – краям (edge)
конь – коня́м (horse)
луна́ – лу́нам (moon)
гра́ница – грани́цам (border)
рука́ – рука́м (hand)
неде́ля – неде́лям (week)
ста́нция – ста́нциям (station)
дверь – дверя́м (door)
ли́цо – ли́цам (face)
окно – о́кнам (window)
зда́ние – зда́ниям (building)
со́лнце – со́лнцам (sun)
жилище́ – жили́щам (housing)
варе́нье – варе́ньям (jam)

Russian Pod 101

Dative plural memo chart

ending or description how to change examples
masculine, feminine, neuter
й, ь -й, -ь / +ям край – края́м
а, о -а, -о / +ам лицо́ – ли́цам
е -е / +ям зда́ние – зда́ниям
же, че, ше, ще -е / +ам жили́ще – жили́щам
other consonant +ам дом – дома́м

The offline version of this lesson is available here

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3 comments on “038 – The Dative case with plural nouns”

  1. Tjaart says:

    The examples show the changes for words ending in «я», but there is no rule mentioned for it. Just FYI.

    1. Learn Russian Step by Step says:

      Hi Tjaart,

      Thanks for your comment, you are absolutely right. We have added the words ending in -я to the explanation.

  2. nando says:

    there are rongs in the examples here

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