Study Resource: What are indeclinable nouns in Russian?

In Russian, indeclinable nouns are nouns that never change their form, regardless of their case. These are mostly loan words, geographical place names, and abbreviations. Here are a few examples:

• кино (transcribed kiNO, meaning “cinema”)

• пальто (transcribed palTO, meaning “coat”)

• такси (transcribed takSEE, meaning “taxi”)

• шоу (transcribed SHOoo, meaning “a show”)

• меню (transcribed miNYU, meaning “menu”)

• ООН (transcribed o-o-n, meaning “the U.N.”)

• НАТО (transcribed NAta, meaning “NATO”)

• Хельсинки (transcribed KHYELsinki, meaning “Helsinki”)

• метро (transcribed mitRO, meaning “metro”)

• Токио (transcribed TOkia, meaning “Tokyo”)

These nouns will only ever appear in one form, regardless of the case. For example:

However, even though the noun may not change form to reflect the case, they can still be used in any case. This means that any other words (like adjectives) that are used along with indeclinable nouns should still have the appropriate case ending. For example: