How to use the accusative case in Russian?

The charts below illustrate how to form the accusative of Russian nouns.

As you can see, putting Russian nouns in the accusative case is a bit trickier than in other cases, as you will have to pay attention to the gender and number of the noun, as well as whether it is animate or inanimate. While animate nouns have a special accusative form, the accusative form of inanimate nouns will match the nominative (dictionary) form.

As with virtually any other Russian case, there are irregularities and exceptions in formation of some nouns in accusative too, for example:

• Feminine animate nouns ending in -ка will end with -ок/-ек in accusative plural:

  Nominative Singular	Accusative Plural	English
  кошка KOSHka	кошек KOshek	cat(s)
  студентка KOSHka	студенток stooDYENtak	female student(s)

• Some masculine nouns ending in -ец will lose -е- before -ц- in accusative plural:

  Nominative Singular	Accusative Plural	English
  немец NYEmits	немцев NYEMtsef	German(s)
  леденец lidiNYETS	леденцы lidinTSY	hard candy/candies

• Some animate nouns have accusative plural forms that just have to be memorized. Luckily these are the same irregular forms they have in the genitive case, so you only need to learn them once!

  Nominative Singular	Accusative Plural	English
  брат brat	братьев BRATyef	brother(s)
  друг drook	друзей drooZYEY	friend(s)
  мать mat	матерей matiRYEY	mother(s)
  дочь doch	дочерей dachiRYEY	daughter(s)
  сын syn	сыновей synaVYEY	son(s)
  сосед saSYET	соседей saSYEdyey	neighbor(s)
  семья simYA	семей siMYEY	family / families
  сестра sistRA	сестёр sisTYOR	sister(s)

The forms of accusative adjectives also have animate and inanimate forms — which one you use will depend on whether the noun you describe is animate or inanimate. Notice the difference in the endings here:

• красивых актрис

  kraSEEvykh aktREES

  beautiful actresses

  → actresses are animate

• красивые книги

  kraSEEvye KNEEgi

  beautiful books

  → books are inanimate

The charts below break down how to form adjectives in the accusative case. Notice that, usually, if a noun looks the same in the nominative and accusative, the adjective that describes it also will not change.

Here are the accusative forms of the Russian personal pronouns:

To learn more Russian accusative pronouns, have a look at this chart of Russian possessive and demonstrative pronouns in accusative.

Like adjectives, accusative numbers in Russian often have animate and inanimate forms and the form you use will depend on the noun you are quantifying. For example:

• Он купил три красивые розы.

  on kooPEEL tree kraSEEvyye ROzy

  He bought three beautiful roses.

  → roses are inanimate

• Они наняли трёх новых преподавателей.

  oNEE NAnyalee tryokh NOvykh preepadaVAteelyey

  They hired three new instructors.

  → instructors are animate

Download our table of Russian cardinal numbers to see all of their different accusative forms.

In Russian, we use the accusative case to mark the direct object of a verb. The direct object is the noun that the action is done to.

Notice the difference between when you would use nominative vs. accusative case:

• nominative case

  Большие города - это не моё.

  balSHEEye garaDA Eta nee maYO

  Big cities are not my thing.

• accusative case

  Мой друг любит большие города.

  MOY DROOk LYUbeet balSHEEye garaDA

  My friend loves big cities.

Here is another example:

• nominative case

  Потенциальные инвесторы заинтересованы в нашей фирме.

  patentseeALnyye invyestaRY zaynteereeSOvany v NAshyey FEErmye

  Potential investors are interested in our firm.

• accusative case

  Компания ищет потенциальных инвесторов.

  kamPAneeya EEshchyet patentseeALnykh inVYEstaraf

  The company is looking for potential investors.

If a verb of motion indicates movement toward someone or something, the noun that describes the destination will be in the accusative. This usually happens if the verb of motion is followed by the prepositions в[f](to, into) or на[na](on, onto, toward).

The accusative case is therefore also used to answer the question куда?[kooDA](to where?).

The accusative case is often used to express when something happens, how often it happens, or how long an action happens. Here we’ll introduce a few common time expressions that use the accusative case in Russian, but for a full discussion, check out our post on the accusative case for time expressions in Russian!

• When using the preposition в[v](at, on), which indicates “at which day/time” something is being done, you will often (though not always!) use the accusative case. Here are some common expressions:

  • в полдень

    f POLdyen

    at noon

  • в полночь

    f POLnach

    at midnight

  • в эту минуту

    v Etoo miNOOtoo

    at that minute

  • в тот момент

    f tot maMYENT

    at that moment

  • в этот день

    v Etat dyen

    on that day

  • в это время

    v Eta VRYEmya

    at that time

  • в среду

    v SRYEdoo

    on Wednesday

• We also use the accusative to say how often something happens:

  accusative case

  Мы ходим к стоматологу два раза в год.

  my KHOdim k stamaTOlagoo dva RAza v got.

  We visit the dentist twice a year.

  Мои родители каждую неделю приезжают к нам в гости.

  maEE raDEEtili KAZHdooyu niDYElyu priiZHAyut k nam v GOSti.

  My parents visit us every week.

• Expressions of duration, which say how long something happened for, will also often be in the accusative:

  accusative case

  Саша всю весну страдала от аллергии.

  SAsha fsyu visNOO straDAla at alirGEEi.

  Sasha suffered from an allergy all spring.

  Я уже третий день не ем дома.

  ya ooZHE TRYEtiy dyen ni yem DOma.

  I haven’t eaten at home for three days already.

The accusative case follows some uses of certain prepositions. We’ve seen some cases above where the accusative is used after the prepositions в/во[f/va] and на[na], however several other prepositions that can commonly be followed by the accusative. Here is a list:

• в/во

  f/va

  to, at, on

• на

  na

  to, for

• включая

  fklyuCHAya

  including

• исключая

  isklyuCHAya

  except, excluding

• спустя

  spoosTYA

  later

• про

  pra

  about

• сквозь

  skvos

  through

• через

  CHEris

  through, within

• по

  pa

  up to, until

• с/со

  a/ab

  against

• за

  za

  beyond, before, on behalf of

• под

  pat

  under

We commonly use the accusative to give a reason for some action. Often these reasons are introduced by the preposition за[za], which in this case means “for.”

Here are some common phrases that introduce accusative reasons:

• спасибо за

  spaSEEba za

  thank you for

• благодарить за

  blagadaREET za

  to thank for

• наказать за

  nakaZAT za

  to punish for

• ненавидеть за

  ninaVEEdit za

  to hate for

• любить за

  lyuBEET za

  love for

A noun that describes the distance someone covers without using numbers will also be in the accusative case.