accusative anim pl 2

Russian Grammar: Animate Accusative Plural

In Russian, when you are talking about "who" (animate objects like people or animals) in the plural, the Accusative case undergoes a specific change. Instead of looking like the Nominative (subject) form, it mimics the Genitive case. This applies to the nouns themselves, as well as the adjectives, possessives, and pronouns that describe them.

1. Adjectives (Full Forms)

Standard adjectives follow the "strong" genitive plural pattern. For all genders, the ending becomes -ых or -их (depending on the last consonant of the stem).

• новых студентов (novykh studentov) – new students
• маленьких детей (malen'kikh detey) – little children

2. Possessives and "All"

Possessive pronouns like "my," "your," and the word "all" also shift to their genitive forms to match the animate plural noun.

• моих друзей (moikh druzey) – my friends
• твоих сестёр (tvoikh sestyor) – your sisters
• всех детей (vsekh detey) – all children

3. Personal Pronouns

When personal pronouns function as the direct object (Accusative) and refer to people, they use the genitive forms:

• нас (nas) – us (from мы/we)
• вас (vas) – you all (from вы/you-plural)
• их (ikh) – them (from они/they)

4. Important Distinctions

The Demonstrative "это": When used to say "These are..." or "This is...", the word это (eto) is invariable and remains in its basic form regardless of the plural noun following it.

Example: Это студенты. (Eto studenty) – These are students. (Nominative usage).

Short Adjectives: Short form adjectives (weak adjectives) usually remain unchanged in these structures compared to their base plural form.

Example: готовы студентов (gotovy studentov) – ready students (though full forms are much more common in the Accusative).

Summary Rule: If the plural noun is animate, the Accusative case for modifiers and pronouns = the Genitive case.