The Russian Accusative Case in the Plural

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In this lesson, you will learn everything you need to know about the Russian Accusative Case in the plural.

To make things easier, I divided the lesson into three parts:

Plural Nouns in the Accusative Case;
Plural Adjectives in the Accusative Case;
Plural Possessive Pronouns in the Accusative Case.

The above titles have links. If you want to go straight to a specific part of the lesson, just click on the subject you would like to learn.

If you don’t know yet when to use the Accusative Case or how to use it in the singular, you can check out our complete lesson on this subject clicking here.

Plural Nouns in the Accusative Case

The way plural nouns change in the Accusative Case depends on whether the noun is animate or inanimate. Animate nouns refer to people and animals (man, girl, cat, doctor). Inanimate nouns refer to objects or abstract things (table, pen, car, love).

Let's take a look at how each of these types of nouns change.

Inanimate nouns:

The endings of plural inanimate nouns in the Accusative Case are the same as in the Nominative Case. So, if you already know the Nominative Case in the plural, you won't have to learn anything new.

If you don't know the Nominative Case yet, you will need to learn some rules:

1) When a noun ends in a consonant, add Ы:

телефон – телефоны (phone)
диван – диваны (sofa)
стакан – стаканы (glass)
стол – столы (table)

There are some exceptions, though. Some masculine nouns take А instead of Ы to form the plural. The most common of them are:

дом – дома (house)
город – города (city)
поезд – поезда (train)
вечер – вечера (evening)

2) When a noun ends in А, replace А with Ы:

машина – машины (car)
квартира – квартиры (apartment)
стена – стены (wall)
минута – минуты (minute)

However, if the last consonant of the noun is к, г, ш, щ, ч, ж and х, you need to write И instead of Ы:

ручка – ручки (pen)
сумка – сумки (bag)

3) When a noun ends in Й, Ь or Я, replace the last letter with И:

вещь – вещи (thing)
музей – музеи (museum)
дверь – двери (door)
кровать – кровати (bed)

4) When a noun ends in О, replace О with А:

окно – окна (window)
место – места (place)
лицо – лица (face)

5) When a noun ends in Е, replace Е with Я:

поле – поля (field)
море – моря (sea)
платье – платья (dress)

To learn more about the Nominative Case, check out our complete lesson about it clicking here.

Animate nouns:

If the noun is animate, its ending in the Accusative Case is the same as in the Genitive Case.

If you don't know the genitive endings yet, these are the rules you need to learn:

1) When a noun ends in А or О, remove the last letter:

мама – мам (mom)
собака – собак (dog)

Note that when the plural form has two consonants at the end, the vowel О or Е is often added between the two consonants:

окно – окон (window)
девушка – девушек (girl)

2) When a noun ends in a consonant, add ОВ:

студент – студентов (student)
спортсмен – спортсменов (athlete)

However, if the noun ends in ж, ш, щ and ч, add ЕЙ instead of ОВ:

врач – врачей (doctor)
муж – мужей (husband)

3) When a noun ends in Ь, replace Ь with ЕЙ:

лошадь – лошадей (horse)
учитель – учителей (teacher)

4) When a neuter noun ends in Е, just add Й:

море – морей (sea)
поле – полей (field)

5) When a masculine noun ends in Й, replace Й with ЕВ:

герой – героев (hero)

To learn more about the Genitive Case, check out our complete lesson about this subject.

Now that you know what endings nouns have in the accusative plural, let's take a look at adjectives.

The Accusative Case of Adjectives in the Plural

The way we use adjectives in the accusative plural also depends on whether they are used with animate or inanimate nouns.

Adjectives with inanimate nouns:

If the adjective appears before an inanimate noun, its ending in the Accusative Case is the same as in the Nominative.

In this situation, the most common ending is ЫЕ:

Она купила красивые цветы.
(She bought beautiful flowers)
Он читает интересные книги.
(He reads interesting books)

Sometimes the ending is ИЕ:

Мы купили хорошие вещи.
(We bought good clothes)
Они смотрят русские фильмы.
(They watch Russian movies)

Adjectives with animate nouns:

If the adjective appears before an animate noun, its ending in the Accusative Case is the same as in the Genitive.

In this situation, the most common ending is ЫХ:

Sometimes the ending is ИХ:

Мы знаем хороших людей.
(We know good people)
Она любит русских писателей.
(She likes Russian writers)

The Accusative Case of Possessive Pronouns in the Plural

The endings of possessive pronouns in the accusative plural also depend on whether the noun they describe is animate or inanimate.

If the noun is inanimate, the ending of the possessive pronoun is the same as in the Nominative Case:

Let's take a look at some examples:

Я люблю твои шутки.
(I like your jokes)
Они слушают наши песни.
(They listen to our songs)
Мы нашли ваши вещи.
(We found your things)

If the noun that the possessive pronoun describes is animate, the ending of the pronoun in the Accusative Case is the same as in the Genitive:

Let's take a look at some examples:

Я знаю твоих друзей.
(I know your friends)
Они знают моих родителей.
(They know my parents)
Вы видели наших детей?
(Have you seen our kids?)

And that's all you need to know about how to use the Accusative Case in the plural in Russian.

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