Prepositional Case: Basics - Nouns and Personal Pronouns

The Russian prepositional case is the easiest of all six cases to form, and many of my students relax the moment we reach it. As the name suggests, the prepositional case is used after prepositions — it never appears without one.

If you are new to Russian cases, I recommend starting with this article first: Russian Cases: The Logic Behind the System.

The prepositional case usually answers two questions:

Где? (Where?) — for location, after the prepositions в (in) and на (on / at)

О ком? О чём? (About whom? About what?) — for the topic of thinking, talking, or remembering, after the preposition о (about)

Location — Где?

This is the most common use: saying where someone or something is, after в (in) or на (on / at).

• Я живу в Москве. - I live in Moscow.
• Он работает в офисе. - He works in the office.
• Книга лежит на столе. - The book is on the table.
• Дети играют на улице. - The children are playing outside / on the street.

Choosing between в and на is its own little adventure, so I wrote about it in a separate article: В vs На — In / On / At in Russian. In this article, we focus on the forms — how to change the noun and the pronoun once you already know which preposition you need.

Common verbs that go with location: 

• жить (to live)
• работать (to work)
• учиться (to study)
• отдыхать (to rest / to be on vacation)
• находиться (to be located)
• лежать (to lie)
• стоять (to stand)
• сидеть (to sit)

Где? vs куда?

There is one trap to know about. Both the prepositional and the accusative case can follow в and на — but they answer different questions. If nothing is moving (где? — where?), you use the prepositional. If there is movement toward a place (куда? — where to?), you switch to the accusative:

• Ключи в сумке. - The keys are in the bag. (Где? — prepositional)
• Я положила ключи в сумку. - I put the keys into the bag. (Куда? — accusative)
• Мы живём в России. - We live in Russia. (Где? — prepositional)
• Мы едем в Россию. - We are going to Russia. (Куда? — accusative)

So the simple rule is:

• где? = location → prepositional case
• куда? = direction → accusative case

You can read more about the second half of this rule in Accusative Case: Basics — Nouns and Personal Pronouns.

Prepositional singular: step by step

The prepositional case is simple in one way: most singular nouns take the same ending, -е, for all genders.

You can see the pattern: whatever the noun ends in, you take it off and put -е. Masculine nouns simply add it; neuter nouns ending in -е are already "done."

The two groups that don't take -е

There is a small but very common group of words that breaks the -е rule. 

1. Nouns ending in -ий, -ия, -ие take -ии (not -е):
   1. санаторий - в санатории (in the health resort)
   2. Россия - в России (in Russia)
   3. аудитория - в аудитории (in the auditorium)
   4. здание - в здании (in the building)
   5. общежитие - в общежитии (in the dormitory)
2. Feminine nouns ending in -ь take -и (not -е):
   1. тетрадь - в тетради (in the notebook)
   2. дверь - на двери (on the door)

When a noun ends in -ь, you can't tell from the ending whether it's masculine or feminine, so you need to learn the gender together with the noun. To be honest, in speech there isn't much difference between the unstressed endings -е and -и. What really matters is that many countries end in -ия (Франция, Испания, Индия, Япония, Бразилия), and whenever you talk about them as a location, they take the ending -ии (во Франции, в Испании, в Индии, в Японии, в Бразилии).

So the whole picture is short:

A special group of masculine words

A handful of common masculine nouns take a stressed -у after в and на when they describe location. There is no logic to learn here — these are simply the words Russians use most often to talk about where, so they kept an old, short ending:

• лес - в лесу́ (in the forest)
• сад - в саду́ (in the garden)
• шкаф - в шкафу́ (in the wardrobe)
• угол - в углу́ (in the corner)
• порт - в порту́ (in the port)
• аэропорт - в аэропорту́ (in the airport)
• мост - на мосту́ (on the bridge)
• берег - на берегу́ (on the shore)
• пол - на полу́ (on the floor)
• год - в году́ (in the year)

A little tip: this special -у only appears after в and на with the meaning "where?". When the same word comes after о (about), it goes back to normal: о лесе, о саде.

Words that never change

Many borrowed neuter words simply refuse to change in any case — and the prepositional is no exception. You use them in their dictionary form:

• в кафе, в метро, в кино, в такси, в пальто

The same is true for many foreign place names:

• в Сочи, в Тбилиси, в Баку

Prepositional plural

More good news. The prepositional plural is a classic example of how regular Russian endings can be: the choice depends only on whether the stem is hard or soft. There are just two options:

• -ах for hard-stem nouns
• -ях for soft-stem nouns (those ending in -ь, -й, -я, -е)

About something — О ком? О чём?

The preposition о (about) shows the topic of thinking, speaking, dreaming, or remembering. Here are the most common verbs that lead to it:

The preposition о has three faces, and the choice is only about sound:

• о before most consonants — о книге, о работе
• об before a vowel sound — об этом, об Анне, об искусстве
• обо before a few tricky words — обо мне, обо всём

Personal pronouns

Because the prepositional case always lives with a preposition, the personal pronouns here are always shown with the preposition о (about).

As you can see, in the third person (он, она, оно, они), the pronoun begins with the letter н: нём, ней, них. You may remember this same н from the genitive case (у него, у неё). In the prepositional case there is always a preposition in front, so these pronouns always keep their н. 

A few more places you'll meet it

The prepositional case quietly shows up in some everyday expressions too. You don't need to master these now — just recognize them when they appear:

• Time (months, years, centuries): в марте (in March), в этом году (this year)
• Languages and instruments with на: говорить на русском (to speak Russian), играть на гитаре (to play the guitar)
• Moods and states as fixed phrases: в хорошем настроении (in a good mood), в восторге (delighted)

And that's the prepositional case — not the scary part of Russian, but the part where the language finally gives you a little break. 

To make it stick, go to the Exercise tab at the top of the page and try a few. And if you'd like to practice together, book a lesson with me — see you in class! 😊