Full transcript of instrumental-case. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o1ecDwMeYo
foreign welcome to Russian readers and in today’s video we’re going to be talking about the instrumental case and as I always tell you whenever we’ll learn a new case we need to look at its meaning and add its form so let’s do that so as it’s easy to guess from its name the instrumental case is used with nouns that are used as an instrument or a tool in a sentence for example if you say I cut bread with a knife right so the knife in this case is a tool so in Russian you would have to put it in the instrumental case another example is I write with a pen right so the word pan is used as a tool or is an instrument so again in Russian you would have to put it in the instrumental keys and well you notice that when we use something as a tool even in English right we use the preposition with right and the truth is that the instrumental case in Russian kind of went Beyond its original use which is using something as a tool and by association we in Russian we simply use an instrumental case pretty much any time we use the preposition with even if we’re not using something as a tool for example if you say I drink tea with sugar right in this sentence you’re not using sugar as an instrument or a tool but you’re still using the preposition with and again by association anytime you see the preposition with in Russian which by the way in Russian is right just one letter sometimes it can be saw right you pretty much always use the instrumental case you put the noun following that preposition in the instrumental case for example in the sentence I drink tea with sugar the noun sugar would be an instrumental case simply because it’s used with the preposition with which in Russia again is again even though technically sugar is not a tool in the sentence other common examples would be I drink coffee with milk right so milk would be an instrumental case uh I eat chicken with rice right rice would be an instrumental case I walk with the dog so the dog would be an instrumental case or I I speak with a friend or with you know anyone even with proper names right with John with Michael with Jessica right even proper names you would have to put in the instrumental case if they follow the preposition with and Technical instrumental has a couple of other uses but uh you know in this video we’re only going to be talking about these two major uses so using a noun as a tool or an instrument or simply using a noun with the preposition with which again is in Russian and trust me guys those uses cover pretty much probably 95 percent of all the uses of the instrumental case in Russian so now let’s look at the form and again in this video we’re only looking at singular nouns so no adjectives no plurals no pronouns just singular nouns in the instrumental case and the endings are fairly easy so what you do is you add om to both masculine and neuter nouns and when it comes to cases most of the time masculine and neuter uh genders share share an ending so this is the case with instrumental right so both masculine and neutral nouns take om in the instrumental case for example right sugar in a nominative would become saharam in instrumental so you would say with sugar you would say right friend would become drugam or with a friend a proper name for example Ivan Right In instrumental would become ivanum or with Ivan would be ivanum um and uh for example yeah if you using something as a tool a knife right Nosh would become a nazron in the instrumental and a couple of newer examples and again neural nouns take the exact same ending as masculine so for example molacoa would become malacom or with milk would be or Masala right butter or oil would become Muslim or literally with butter would become Muslim so what about feminine nouns feminine nouns take the ending oi for example Sabaka becomes sabakoi in instrumental case so with the dog would be sabake right with the girl right a proper name for example Marina would become Marino or with Marina would become uh kartoshka ripe potato would become kartoshke or ruchka a pan if you write with a pen you would say right or loshka a spoon would become loshke if you’re saying with a spoon I will also mention that you might see a couple of other endings for singular nouns and instrumental for example if if your noun ends in one of those weird hissing consonants you know like the endings will actually be Yem instead of om for masculine and neuter you know for example is husband right with the husband you would say or you know the name Natasha on uh in the instrumental Keys would become not natashoi but natashe right and there are a couple of other endings possible but uh we’re trying to keep things simple for now so just remember the OM for masculine and neuter and oi for feminine and again they cover 90 to 95 of all scenarios and even if it’s yam or yay even if you pronounce the wrong one again it won’t be very noticeable so to be fully functional just rely on those uh major endings and we’ll talk about exceptions in one of our next videos all right guys let’s start with some examples and we’re going to start with masculine nouns for example sugar right ETA Sachar this is sugar but yeah right I drink tea with sugar again here it’s not being used as a tool but yeah you simply follow the rule you see it used with the preposition which again means with and you automatically apply instrumental case which for masculine takes the ending um right this is my friend yeah I’m speaking with a friend or with the friend a proper name example ETA Ivan this is Ivan yeah I’m speaking with Ivan and now I’ll give you a couple of examples where nouns are actually being used as tools and the funny thing here is that when we use nouns as Tools in Russian we don’t actually say the preposition with I know guys it’s kind of weird right so in English you do say you know I write with a pan or I I eat soup with a spoon right so you can’t really again express it without the preposition right because again English does not have case endings so the only way for you to express it in English is to use the preposition with but the beauty of the instrumental case in Russian is that when you use a noun as a tool you simply put it in instrumental case and you don’t even put the preposition with or in fact you should not put the preposition with when you use your noun as a tool for example right this is a knife I am cutting bread with a knife right and a common mistake is that students will say right don’t do that this is wrong so the instrumental case alone here is showing you that the noun Nosh is being used as a tool right so again already means with a tool that being said when you actually need the preposition with right in Russian for example you say I drink tea with sugar yeah like you literally have sugar in your tea so you must use the preposition with right again you’re not using it as a tool you simply say you know I drink tea with literally sugar in it then yes you do put as you saw in the previous examples you still put your noun in the prep in the instrumental case but again if you’re using it as a tool do not use literally just put you’re not an instrumental case and a couple of new renowned examples again neutral nouns take the same ending as masculine right this is milk right I drink coffee with milk this is butter I’m eating bread with butter and let’s look at some feminine examples right this is a dog I’m walking with the dog right so here you’re not using your dog as a tool right you literally walk with your dog right so you do need the preposition and you put your noun in the instrumental case which in feminine takes the ending this is a girl I’m speaking with a girl or with the girl again the feminine ending is oi a proper name ETA Marina this is Marina yeah I’m speaking with Marina and by the way as I already mentioned in one of my previous videos on a different case if uh a name does not have a typical gender ending right for example if a masculine name does not have a consonant ending or if a feminine name does not have an ah or ya ending then you just don’t decline it so you don’t change it by the case for example if you’re speaking with someone named Joshua right so Joshua does not have a typical masculine ending to to a Russian ear you just leave it as this Joshua same for feminine names right for example Jennifer again does not end in ah or ya so you simply keep it the same and another example this is potato I eat meat with potato or potatoes and a couple of more examples with female nouns used as tools and again remember that you do not need and actually you should not put the actual preposition with with tools right so for example if we say eta ruchka this is a pen I write with a pen would be yeah right do not say that would be incorrect this is a spoon soup I eat soup with a spoon again no preposition because we’re using spoon as a tool and again remember that the the endings might vary a little bit for instrumental for certain nouns for example this is her husband right so mush would take the ending yam just because it ends write one of those weird uh sounds right so for example she’s speaking with the husband or with her husband would be anakavarit smooth gem so don’t don’t be surprised if you see a slightly different ending for instrumental although again it’s not super common but you might see it and an example for again feminine slightly different ending for example ETA Natasha right technical it’s not natashoi but it’s natashe so again you might see that in the instrumental forms and finally we’re gonna have some practice I will give you a few examples where I want you to put the nouns in the instrumental case and also let’s see if you remember when you actually need to put the preposition or with right and when you don’t need to put it and feel free to pause the video if you need a few seconds to think but I will be giving you the answers in pretty much just a few seconds after giving you the uh the original example so if our noun is Limon lemon right Limon how would you say I drink tea with lemon chai and of course it would be yeah right you’re not using the lemon as a tool so you do need the preposition and lemon is a masculine noun so it takes the ending um so with lemon would be with lemon okay our next noun is uh koshka which means cat female cat right koshka so how would you say I’m playing with the cat right yeah igrayo with the kit right how would you say that ya igrayo and of course it would be ya igrayu koshke right uh again we’re not using the cat as a tool so we do need the prepositions and we add the uh feminine instrumental ending to our noun so koshka becomes so squash means with the cat all right our next noun is vilka which means a fork vioca so how would you say I’m eating chicken with a fork right yeah with a fork how would you say that and here we’re using a fork as a tool so we do not need ironically to use the preposition with so you would simply say okay right I’m eating chicken by the way here in the sentence chicken is accusative case right that’s why it’s not kuritza but because you’re eating it you’re using it as a direct object with a a fork that is instrumental case again there is literally no width already in and of itself means with a fork right so I eat chicken with a fork okay our next noun is actually a proper name Michael so how would you say I’m I’m speaking with Michael yagavaru with Michael and to say that you would of course say my Clum right the name Michael even though it’s not a Russian name it does end in a consonant so to a Russian ear it does sound like a typical masculine name and again you’re not using Michael as a tool so you do need the preposition with and you you add the masculine instrumental ending um and one more example uh the noun miasa so it’s a neuter noun right and then so how do you how do you say I’m eating borscht with meat right I’m eating bush with meat with meat and that would of course be a yeah right as a neural noun takes the same ending as a masculine noun would right om and again you’re not using meat as a tool you’re literally eating borscht with it so you do need with so again with meat would be smiasam and something you guys can do is just memorize a couple of really common examples with instrumental keys for example right tea with sugar or coffee with milk or I don’t know right a sandwich with uh kalbasa like with a sausage or whatever you call it sausage yeah uh just remember a few really common examples that you hear all the time or use all the time and use them as your goal to forms right whenever you want to put another noun in instrumental you just think of okay with sugar would be saharam I just remember it right sakuram so that’s your ending om right if you want to apply it to another ending to another to another noun for example with a friend uh you automatically say uh okay friends drug so it would be right so this is what I recommend you do all right guys this is it for this video just the very basics of the instrumental case uh for singular nouns only and for the most major uses but if it’s your first time learning about the instrumental Keys hopefully it should be very helpful uh if you liked our video be sure to hit the like button below and remember you can ask us any questions in the comment section uh and well subscribe to our Channel subscribe to our app Russian readers this is where we use graded level stories to help you boost your reading skills your listening skills your vocabulary and grammar we specifically have a section called grammar guides um each of our stories has highlighted narration and translation that will help you better understand and practice and well guys uh thanks very much for watching and I will see you guys next time until then