Anki or an app: which is better for drilling Russian case endings?
Anki and a good cases app both bring forms back with spaced repetition. The difference is who writes the cards and who checks your answer.
- Pick Anki if you already review in it every day and will write your own sentence cards. It's free everywhere except the iPhone. Use cloze cards that hide the whole word, and type the answer.
- Pick a cases app if you'd rather drill than build. It generates the 12 forms of each noun, checks the ending you type, shows the rule when you miss and tracks which case is weak.
- Use both if you collect your own sentences from a tutor or a book: the app for the core forms, Anki for your sentences.
Slova is our app, and it's the cases app we use as the example below. Anki wins on several points, and we list them.
What drilling case endings takes
A Russian noun has 12 forms: 6 cases, each in the singular and the plural. Take мама (mama) - mom: маму (mamu), мамы (mamy), маме (mame) and мамой (mamoy) are 4 of them. If the table itself is new to you, start with the 6 Russian cases explained.
Knowing the table is step one. A drill has a different job: getting the right ending out of you when you write or speak. Four things decide whether it does.
- You produce the form. Typing маму from memory is harder than spotting it among 4 options, and it's what a conversation asks of you. Slova learners got 80% of case endings right when they picked from options, and 56% when they typed them (the same 35 learners, July to October 2026). A flashcard you flip and grade yourself sits closer to picking: once the answer shows, it's easy to decide you knew it.
- The word sits in a sentence. The word before the noun sets the case: в школе (v shkole) - at school, без сахара (bez sakhara) - without sugar, с сестрой (s sestroy) - with my sister. A card with the ending alone trains the table and skips the decision.
- A miss comes with a reason. If you only see the right ending after a wrong one, you'll guess again next time. The rule for that case has to be on the screen.
- Missed forms come back. Spaced repetition brings each form back just before you'd forget it, and sooner when you miss it.
Anki can do all 4 if you build the cards for it. A cases app does them from the first session. So the trade is your time against your control.
Anki vs a cases app, side by side
We use Slova for the app column because we built it and can vouch for every row. Other cases apps differ in the details, and they're further down.
| Anki | Slova (a cases app) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and the web. AnkiMobile costs $24.99 once on the iPhone | $12 a month or $99 a year, after a 7-day free trial |
| The cards | You write them, or download a shared deck | Made for you: every noun comes with its 12 forms, and adjectives are drilled too |
| Before the first review | Set up the note type, then write and check each card | A placement test, then the first session |
| How you answer | Flip and grade yourself, or type if you add a type-in field | Type the form, usually into a sentence, or pick it while a word is new |
| Who decides it's right | You press Again, Hard, Good or Easy. With a type-in field, Anki shows what you got wrong, and you still grade | The app marks the form right or wrong |
| When you miss | Whatever you wrote on the back of the card | The right form in the singular and plural, the word that called for the case, and the ending table one tap away |
| Scheduling | SM-2 by default. FSRS as an option since Anki 23.10 | FSRS for each word |
| Weak spots | Tag cards by case and filter by tag. No report by case | A score for each case and for the plural. The weakest case leads your next session |
| Content | Anything you paste in: your textbook, your tutor's sentences, your own audio | About 1,300 words, most of them A1 to B1, plus any word you add |
| Also drills | Anything you make cards for | Verb tenses, the imperative, aspect and verbs of motion |
| Platforms | All of them, synced through AnkiWeb | Web and Google Play. App Store coming soon |
Anki facts from the Anki manual. AnkiMobile price from the US App Store on October 11, 2026.
When Anki wins
- You already open it every day. A habit you have beats a better tool you'll skip. If Anki is part of your morning, a case deck rides along at no extra effort.
- You want to pay nothing. Anki is free on every platform except the iPhone, where AnkiMobile costs $24.99 once.
- Your material is your own. Sentences from your tutor, a chapter of your textbook, a line from a show: Anki takes anything you paste in, stress included, plus audio you record.
- You want control. You choose the card format, the hints, the number of new cards a day and the scheduler. With FSRS turned on, Anki schedules with the same algorithm Slova uses. Slova gives you part of that control too: you add your own words, and you choose to type each form or pick it.
- You study more than Russian. One app and one review queue for everything.
When an app wins
- You'd rather drill than build. A noun has 12 case forms, so 100 nouns make 1,200 forms before you add a single adjective. If writing and checking one card takes you a minute, that's 20 hours of work before your first review. A cases app has those forms ready on day one.
- It checks the ending for you. Self-grading is where Anki case decks go soft. Typing маме when the card wanted мамы and pressing Good anyway is easy at 11 pm. An app compares your form with the right one and marks it wrong.
- It explains the miss. A good cases app shows the rule for that case at the moment you get it wrong. In Anki, you see what you wrote on the back of the card, if you wrote anything.
- It knows what a case is. An app can see that your instrumental is weak and give it more practice. Anki sees cards. Tags let you drill one case, but Anki won't tell you which case needs it.
- You still want your own words. Slova takes the words from your lessons, your textbook or your reading. Add one and Slova declines it, builds the sentences and drills its forms with the rest of your words, so you get your own material without writing a single card.
- Shared decks are uneven. AnkiWeb lists Russian decks, and their quality varies a lot. Check 10 cards against a declension table before you trust one.
How to set up Anki cards for Russian case endings
If Anki is your tool, the card format decides whether it works. This setup covers the 4 points above: you produce the form, inside a sentence, with the rule on the back, and FSRS brings it back.
- Use the Cloze note type, one short sentence per note. Keep it to 4 to 8 words, and keep the word that sets the case: a preposition, a verb, a number or нет (net) - there is no.
- Hide the whole word and put the dictionary form in the hint. Write
Я вижу {{c1::маму::мама}}.The card shows Я вижу [мама], and you produce маму. Hiding the whole word drills the stem changes too: день (den) - day becomes дня (dnya), and отец (otets) - father becomes отца (ottsa). Hide only the ending, as inмам{{c1::у}}, and the card gives the stem away. - Leave the case name off the front. The sentence should tell you which case to use. A card that says "accusative" makes that decision for you, and it's the decision you'll face in a conversation. Put the case and the rule in the Back Extra field: "вижу + accusative: feminine -а becomes -у".
- One case per card. Use c1 only, so each card tests one form. Tag each note with its case (genitive, dative and so on). A filtered deck with the search
tag:genitivethen drills one case on its own. - Type the answer. In the Cloze note type's card template, add
{{type:cloze:Text}}to the front and the back. Anki then shows which parts of your answer were wrong. - Add production cards from English. For the sentences you need most, make a Basic (type in the answer) card with the English on the front: I'm calling my brother. You type Я звоню брату (Ya zvonyu bratu). That's the direction a conversation goes.
- Grade strictly. A wrong ending is Again, even when the stem was right.
- Turn on FSRS and go slow on new cards. FSRS sits at the bottom of the deck options. 10 new case cards a day is 300 forms a month, and the reviews pile up behind them.
6 cards to copy
Paste the first column into the Text field of a Cloze note. The hint in each one is the dictionary form.
| Text field | You type | Case, and why |
|---|---|---|
Я вижу {{c1::маму::мама}}.Я вижу маму (Ya vizhu mamu) - I see mom | маму | Accusative: the person you see |
У меня нет {{c1::машины::машина}}.У меня нет машины (U menya net mashiny) - I don't have a car | машины | Genitive after нет (net) - there is no |
Я звоню {{c1::брату::брат}}.Я звоню брату (Ya zvonyu bratu) - I'm calling my brother | брату | Dative: звонить (zvonit) - to call takes the person in the dative |
Я пишу {{c1::ручкой::ручка}}.Я пишу ручкой (Ya pishu ruchkoy) - I write with a pen | ручкой | Instrumental: the tool you use |
Мы живём в {{c1::городе::город}}.Мы живём в городе (My zhivyom v gorode) - We live in the city | городе | Prepositional after в (v) - in, for a place |
В группе пять {{c1::студентов::студент}}.В группе пять студентов (V gruppe pyat studentov) - There are five students in the group | студентов | Genitive plural after пять (pyat) - five |
Take your sentences from your textbook and your tutor first, since those are the words you'll meet again. Our Russian phrases pages have everyday sentences, and Russian words by topic has the nouns. Check each ending against the cases cheat sheet before it goes into the deck.
Where Slova fits
Slova is the cases app we build, for English speakers from A1 to B1. It teaches each case and verb rule in a short lesson, then drills it with you until the endings come without thinking.
- Lesson first. Each case has a lesson: what it does, when to use it, the endings by gender and example sentences. Tenses, aspect and verbs of motion have lessons too.
- Then you type. Every noun you learn comes with its 12 forms, and adjectives are drilled too. You type the form, usually into a sentence, and Slova checks it. While a word is still new, you can pick the form instead.
- A miss shows you why. You see the right form in the singular and the plural, and usually the word in the sentence that called for the case. The ending table for that case is one tap away. Miss the same case twice and Slova offers the rule.
- It tracks each case. FSRS schedules every word, each case and the plural get their own score, and your weakest case leads the next session. At the end of a session, Slova lists what you missed with the rule, and you can drill just those again.
- Your own words work too. Add words from your lessons or your reading, and the drill declines those as well.
Limits: Slova doesn't teach the Cyrillic alphabet, so you need to read and type it. There's no speaking practice and no listening course, though a listen button reads words aloud with your device's voice. It runs on the web and on Google Play. App Store coming soon.
Cost: 7-day free trial, then $12 a month or $99 a year, with a 14-day refund on your first Pro purchase. Details on the pricing page.
You can run Slova and Anki side by side: Slova for the forms of the core words, Anki for the sentences you collect yourself.
Other cases apps
Slova is one of several apps built for the cases. Here are 3 others, each with a different trade.
- MemRussian pairs a dictionary of over 90,000 words with declension practice. You choose which cases to drill, type on its own Cyrillic keyboard, and spaced repetition brings each form back. Free download, then $9.99 a month, $29.99 a year or $89.99 lifetime in the US App Store. On iOS and Android.
- LearnRussianCases teaches the rules in 38 short lessons, each on one pattern, with practice questions and flashcards for every case. $2.99 once, on iPhone and iPad only.
- Clozemaster gives you thousands of Russian sentences with one word missing, and you type it or pick it. Every gap on a noun is a case test in context, though we found no collection for each case. Free, with Pro from $8.99 a month. It suits learners from A2 up.
Prices from the US App Store on October 11, 2026.
All 8 cases apps we compared are ranked in our best apps to learn Russian cases. If you want conjugation and aspect drilled too, see the best Russian grammar apps.
Frequently asked questions
Is Anki good for learning Russian cases?
Yes, if you build the cards for it: a short sentence, the whole word hidden, the dictionary form as the hint, and a type-in field so you produce the ending. Its weak points are the hours of card writing and grading yourself.
Should I use Anki or an app for Russian cases?
Use Anki if you already review in it every day and will write your own sentence cards. Use a cases app if you want the 12 forms of every noun made for you, your typed endings checked, and the rule shown when you miss. You can also run both.
How do I make Anki cards for Russian case endings?
Use the Cloze note type with one short sentence per note. Hide the whole word and give the dictionary form as the hint: Я вижу {{c1::маму::мама}}. Use one cloze per sentence, tag the note with its case, and add {{type:cloze:Text}} to the card template so you type the answer.
Are shared Anki decks good for Russian cases?
Some are. AnkiWeb lists Russian decks, and their quality varies a lot. Before you trust one, check 10 cards against a declension table, and look for full sentences with the word that sets the case.
Does Anki use FSRS?
Yes, as an option. FSRS has been in Anki since version 23.10, and you turn it on at the bottom of the deck options. The default is still the older SM-2 algorithm. Slova schedules every word with FSRS.
Can I use Anki and Slova together?
Yes. Slova makes and drills the 12 forms of the words in its list and of any word you add. Anki is the place for the full sentences you collect from a tutor or a book.
What is the best way to drill Russian case endings?
Learn each case with its trigger words, then type the endings in short sentences, one case at a time, and come back to the forms you miss a few days later. Picking from options feels easier: Slova learners got 80% of case endings right when they picked and 56% when they typed (the same 35 learners, July to October 2026). The 6 Russian cases explained has the rules.