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 живу́ в Москве́. - I live in Moscow.
• Он рабо́тает в о́фисе. - He works in the office.
• Кни́га лежи́т на столе́. - The book is on the table.
• Де́ти игра́ют на у́лице. - 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)
• рабо́тать (to work)
• учи́ться (to study)
• отдыха́ть (to rest / to be on vacation)
• находи́ться (to be located)
• лежа́ть (to lie)
• стоя́ть (to stand)
• сиде́ть (to sit)

Где? vs куда́?

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 (куда́? — where to?), you switch to the accusative:

• Ключи́ в су́мке. - The keys are in the bag. (Где? — prepositional)
• Я положи́ла ключи́ в су́мку. - I put the keys into the bag. (Куда́? — accusative)
• Мы живём в Росси́и. - We live in Russia. (Где? — prepositional)
• Мы е́дем в Росси́ю. - We are going to Russia. (Куда́? — accusative)

So the simple rule is:

• где? = location → prepositional case
• куда́? = 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):

• санато́рий - в санато́рии (in the health resort)
• Росси́я - в Росси́и (in Russia)
• аудито́рия - в аудито́рии (in the auditorium)
• зда́ние - в зда́нии (in the building)
• общежи́тие - в общежи́тии (in the dormitory)

2. Feminine nouns ending in -ь take -и (not -е):

• тетра́дь - в тетра́ди (in the notebook)
• крова́ть - на крова́ти (on the bed)

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 (Фра́нция, Испа́ния, И́ндия, Япо́ния, Брази́лия), and whenever you talk about them as a location, they take the ending -ии (во Фра́нции, в Испа́нии, в И́ндии, в Япо́нии, в Брази́лии).

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 ле́се, о са́де.

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 кафе́, в метро́, в кино́, в такси́, в пальто́

The same is true for many foreign place names:

• в Со́чи, в Тбили́си, в Баку́

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 кни́ге, о рабо́те
• об before a vowel sound — об э́том, об А́нне, об иску́сстве
• 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, она́, оно́, они́), the pronoun begins with the letter н: нём, ней, них. You may remember this same н from the genitive case (у него́, 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 ма́рте (in March), в э́том году́ (this year)
• Languages and instruments with на: говори́ть на ру́сском (to speak Russian), игра́ть на гита́ре (to play the guitar)
• Moods and states as fixed phrases: в хоро́шем настрое́нии (in a good mood), в восто́рге (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! 😊