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Before telling about exceptions, I will remind you a rule.
So, accusative case is the fourth case, nouns in accusative case answer the questions "что?" /what?/ (inanimate) and "кого?" /whom?/ (animate).
Let's see how endings of nouns change in accusative case.
| Inanimate Nouns | Animate Nouns |
| Что это? /What is this?/ Что вы любите (покупаете)? /What do you like (buy)?/ |
Кто это? /Who is this?/ Кого вы знаете (любите)? /Whom do you know (love)?/ |
|
Masculine gender Это сыр /This is cheese/. |
Masculine gender Это сын /This is my son/. Я люблю сына /I love my son/. Это учитель. /This is a teacher/. Я знаю учителя. /I know the teacher/. Feminine gender Это мама. /This is my mom/. Я люблю маму. /I love my mom/. Это тётя. /This is my aunt/. Я люблю тётю. /I love my aunt/. |
This is the rule, however, there are exceptions to any rule.
1. There are nouns of feminine gender ending in -ь (площадь /square/, вещь /thing/, мать /mother/, дочь /daughter/), which don't change in accusative case. Что это? - Это площадь /What is this? - This is a square/. Что вы видели в Москве? - Я видел (а) Красную площадь /What did you see in Russia? - I saw Red Square/. Кто это? - Это моя мать /Who is this? - This is my mother/. Кого вы часто вспоминаете? - Мою мать /Whom do you often call to memory? - My mother/.
2. Animate nouns of masculine gender ending in -а/-я (папа /dad/, дядя /uncle/), which denote a person, are declined like nouns of feminine gender. Кто это? - Это мой дядя /Who is this? - This is my uncle/. Кого вы встретили вчера? - Моего дядю /Whom did you meet yeasterday? - My uncle/.
3. Some nouns denoting toys change in accusative case. These are names of the toys, which have image of a person (doll) or animals (teddy-bear). Что это? - Это кукла (мишка). /What is this? - This is a doll (a teddy-bear)/ Что взял ребёнок? - Ребёнок взял куклу (мишку) /What did a child take? - A child took a doll (a teddy-bear)/. Pay attention: we ask "what", not "who"!
4. Some forms of nouns denoting dead people and those creatures, who don't belong to the world of alive, are changed in accusative case: покойник /decedent/, вампир /vampire/. Why? Firstly, they possess an image of a person. Secondly, it can be explained by ancient people's believes concerning life and death. Кто это? - Это вампир /Who is is? - This is a vampire/. Кого вы увидели в фильме? - Вампира /Whom did you see in a movie? - A vampire/.
BUT! Words "труп" /corpse/ and "зомби" /zombie/ are not changed in accusative case!
5. The words "кальмар" /calamar/, "краб" /crab/ and some other may be understood both as animate and inanimate. It depends on situation. For example, in the sentence "Рыбаки поймали огромного краба" /Fishermen caught a huge crab/, crab is an animal, animate noun, that's why it changes its ending in accusative case. But in the sentece: "Я ем крабы" /I eat crabs/, the word "крабы" /crabs/ denotes food; it is inanimate and can be used without changing its ending.
