Russian declension: type a word, get every form

Russian declension chart: all noun endings

Russian sorts its nouns into 3 declension types. Gender and the last letter of the dictionary form decide which type a word takes, and after that the 12 endings are fixed. Here is the whole declension chart on one screen.

Where a cell shows two endings, the first is the hard stem and the second is the soft stem. кни́га (kniga) - book is hard. неде́ля (nedelya) - week is soft, so its genitive is неде́ли (nedeli) where кни́га gives кни́ги (knigi).

Singular endings

Plural endings

The plural is the friendly half of the declension table. Dative, instrumental and prepositional use one set of endings for every noun in the language, whatever its gender or type.

The genitive plural is the cell that costs learners the most time. First declension nouns drop the ending entirely and often gain a vowel to break up the consonants that are left: кни́га (kniga) - book gives книг (knig), but окно́ (okno) - window gives о́кон (okon) with an о pushed in. Type any noun into the tool above and the form is right there, stress included.

Which declension type does a word belong to?

Four rules cover almost every noun you'll meet before B1. Read the dictionary form, apply the matching rule, then read the column.

• Ends in -а or -я, any gender. First declension. кни́га (kniga) - book, неде́ля (nedelya) - week, and yes, па́па (papa) - dad too. Male humans in -а still take feminine endings while staying grammatically masculine, which is why you say мой па́па (moy papa) - my dad with a masculine adjective and a feminine noun ending.
• Masculine, ends in a consonant, -й or -ь. Second declension. стол (stol) - table, музе́й (muzey) - museum, слова́рь (slovar) - dictionary.
• Neuter, ends in -о or -е. Second declension, neuter column. окно́ (okno) - window, мо́ре (more) - sea.
• Feminine, ends in -ь. Third declension, the smallest group. ночь (noch) - night, дверь (dver) - door, пло́щадь (ploshchad) - square.

The soft sign is the one that trips people up, because it appears at the end of both second declension masculines and third declension feminines. слова́рь is masculine and takes словаря́ (slovarya) in the genitive. дверь is feminine and takes две́ри (dveri). The gender has to be learned with the word, so learn it with the word.

Russian adjective declension chart

Adjectives agree with their noun in gender, number and case, so an adjective has 24 forms to a noun's 12. The upside is that adjectives are far more regular. Two patterns cover the language: hard stems like но́вый (novyy) - new and soft stems like си́ний (siniy) - blue. Each cell below shows hard first, soft second.

One variation to know: when the stress falls on the ending, the masculine nominative is -ой instead of -ый. That gives большо́й (bolshoy) - big and молодо́й (molodoy) - young. Every other cell in the column stays exactly as the chart shows it.

Worth memorizing early: the genitive -ого is pronounced "-ovo", with a v. но́вого (novogo) comes out of a Russian mouth as "novava". The spelling has been lagging the pronunciation for about 400 years and nobody plans to fix it.

Switch the tool above to Adjective + noun mode to decline a full phrase and watch the two endings move together.

Where a declension chart stops helping

A chart gives you the ending. Four things decide whether the form you build from it is the form a Russian would say.

Animacy. In the masculine singular and in every plural, the accusative copies the genitive for people and animals and copies the nominative for everything else. я ви́жу стол (ya vizhu stol) - I see a table against я ви́жу бра́та (ya vizhu brata) - I see a brother. Same declension type, same case, different form, because one of them breathes.

The spelling rule. After ж, ч, ш, щ, к, г, х you write и where the chart says ы. So кни́га gives кни́ги (knigi) in the genitive, and хоро́ший (khoroshiy) - good gives хоро́шие (khoroshiye) in the plural. The rule is mechanical and it applies everywhere, which makes it one of the highest-value things to drill early.

Mobile stress. Russian moves the stress between the stem and the ending as a word declines, and the chart says nothing about it. рука (ruka) - hand becomes руки (ruki) in the plural. Every table in the tool above marks the stress on all 12 forms.

Irregular plurals. A short list of common nouns builds its plural on a different stem. стул (stul) - chair gives сту́лья (stulya), брат (brat) - brother gives бра́тья (bratya), друг (drug) - friend gives друзья́ (druzya), and и́мя (imya) - name gives имена́ (imena). They're frequent enough that you'll meet all four in your first month, so learn them as vocabulary rather than as grammar.

For the reasoning behind each case and the prepositions that trigger it, read the 6 Russian noun cases explained. For the pattern-by-pattern walkthrough of the 3 types, see Russian noun declension. For a printable version of these endings, take the cases cheat sheet.