Lesson 46. What Is a Case and Why Do We Need Them

This is a very important lesson. Today we’ll meet the main feature of Serbian (and Russian) languages — cases.

What Is a Case

When you talk about your mom in Russian, you choose a different form depending on the meaning:

The word is the same, but the form changes. These different forms are called cases.

No.	Name	Question	Example
1	Nominative (Nominativ)	who? what?	`mama`
2	Genitive (Genitiv)	whose? of what?	`mame`
3	Dative (Dativ)	to whom? to what?	`mami`
4	Accusative (Akuzativ)	whom? what?	`mamu`
5	Vocative (Vokativ)	— (address)	`mamo!`
6	Instrumental (Instrumental)	with whom? with what?	`mamom`
7	Locative (Lokativ)	about whom? about what?	`mami`

Serbian has vocative (Vokativ): a special form for addressing someone: Ana → Ano!, mama → mamo!, Petar → Petre!. In modern Russian, this form is almost gone, but it existed: “Father, God” (archaic).
The cases are the same 7, but the endings sometimes differ from Russian.
Locative in Serbian often coincides with the dative (as you see above: mami — both dative and locative).

We won’t learn all the endings at once. That’s hard and not necessary. We’ll take one case at a time and study it carefully:

Each case takes 4 to 10 lessons.

Over the next four lessons, we’ll study it in detail. Then, starting with the sixth case — the accusative — new forms will begin.

How many cases does Serbian have?

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Seven.

Which case answers the question 'whom? what?'

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Accusative — answers the questions “whom?” (for animate nouns), “what?” (for inanimate nouns).

What case is the word mama in the sentence “Moja mama je dobra”?

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Nominative — it answers the question “who?”, and it’s in its base form.

What case is the word mamu in the sentence “Volim mamu”?

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Accusative — “whom do I love?” — mom.

Which case exists in Serbian but is almost gone in modern Russian?

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Vocative (Ano!, Petre!). In Russian, only “God, Father” remain (archaic).

Completed