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### The "Zero Ending"

To form the genitive plural of most feminine nouns ending in **-а** and neuter nouns ending in **-о**, you simply drop the final vowel. Because no new letter is added, this is known as a "zero ending."

If dropping the final vowel leaves a difficult consonant cluster (especially for words ending in **-ка**), Russian inserts a helping vowel to make pronunciation easier:

- **-о-** is usually inserted between hard consonants. For example, **банка** becomes **банок** and **коробка** becomes **коробок**.
- **-е-** is inserted after soft consonants or "husher" letters like **ш** and **ж**. For example, **девушка** becomes **девушек**.

If the word does not end in a difficult cluster, you simply drop the vowel. For example, the neuter noun **яблоко** becomes **яблок**.

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### Smooth Endings

If the noun ends in a single consonant before the **-а** or **-о**, or if the remaining consonants flow easily, you don't need to insert any vowels. 

For instance, **слива** becomes **слив**, **груша** becomes **груш**, and **ягода** becomes **ягод**. Notice that even though **груша** has a husher letter (**ш**), it doesn't need an inserted vowel because there is no consonant cluster before the ending.

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### Soft Consonants and the Letter -я

When a noun ends in **-я** or has a soft sign in its stem, the genitive plural often uses an inserted **-е-** or ends in a soft sign (**-ь**).

- The neuter noun **письмо** drops its **-о** and inserts an **-е-** to become **писем** (replacing the soft sign).
- Feminine nouns ending in **-ня** like **вишня** drop the final vowel and insert an **-е-** to become **вишен**.
- Feminine nouns ending in **-ля** like **туфля** drop the final vowel, insert an **-е-**, and keep a soft sign (**-ь**) to become **туфель**.

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Genitive plural of feminine and neuter nouns

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

predicative

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Presentative (это)

Noun gender

Soft-sign nouns (-ь)

Subject pronouns (я, ты, он...)

Yes/no questions (да / нет)

Basic interrogatives (кто / что)

Basic negation (не)

Coordinating conjunctions (и / а)

Possessive pronouns (мой, твой, наш, ваш)

Demonstrative pronouns (этот, эта, это)

Adjective agreement

Which and whose (какой, чей)

First conjugation verbs, singular (-ать)

First conjugation verbs, plural (-ать)

Second conjugation verbs (-ить)

Irregular present tense verbs

Adverbs of manner (как, очень)

Locations in prepositional case (в / на)

Prepositional case modifiers (-ом, -ой)

Topics of speech (о, об)

Direct objects (-у, -ю)

Direct object pronouns (меня, тебя)

Verbs of motion (идти, ехать)

Destination (куда, в, на)

Plural nouns (-ы, -и, -а, -я)

Irregular plural nouns (друзья, дети)

Plural adjectives and pronouns (-ые, -ие)

Numbers 1 to 10 (один, два, три)

Possession with pronouns (у меня есть)

Possession with nouns (-а, -я, -ы, -и)

Genitive of negation (нет)

Numbers 2, 3, and 4

Quantities with mass nouns (сколько, много, мало)

Animate direct objects

The past tense of to be (был, была, было, были)

Regular past tense verbs

Time sequence expressions (вчера, завтра, раньше, потом)

Verb aspect in the past tense

Dative personal pronouns (мне, тебе, ему)

Expressing likes (нравится, нравятся)

Absence (нет)

Expressing age (год, года, лет)

Indirect objects (-у, -ю, -е)

Modal verbs (хотеть, мочь)

Reason and contrast (поэтому, но)

Double negation (ничего, никогда)

Reflexive verbs (-ся, -сь)

Polite requests and instructions (-ите, -йте)

Days of the week (в + Accusative)

Compound future tense (буду...)

Simple future tense

Accompaniment (с)

Multidirectional verbs of motion (ходить, ездить)

Greetings and goodbyes (здравствуйте, привет)

Thank you and sorry (спасибо, извините)

Countries and languages (русский, английский)

Meeting people (меня зовут, как дела)

Public transport (трамвай, остановка)

Left, right and the compass (слева, справа)

Places in the city (цирк, зоопарк)

Fruit and vegetables (помидор, огурец)

Post and travel (открытка, чемодан)

Family and relatives (внук, родственник)

Jobs and professions (инженер, продавец)

Sport and games (футбол, теннис)

Describing people (умный, сильный)

Health and the body (болен, здоровье)

The months of the year (январь, февраль)

Accusative feminine and inanimate adjectives (-ую, -юю)

Accusative animate masculine adjectives (-ого, -его)

Short-form adjectives (готов, занят)

Personal obligation (должен, должна)

Professions in the instrumental case

Genitive singular adjectives and possessives

Prepositions of absence and purpose (без, для)

Dative singular adjectives and possessives

Impersonal states (мне холодно)

Impersonal obligation (надо, нужно)

Impersonal permission (можно / нельзя)

Instrumental adjectives and pronouns

Reciprocal verbs (с + Instrumental)

Reflexive possessive pronouns (свой)

Reflexive pronouns (себя)

Specific indefinite pronouns (-то)

Non-specific indefinite pronouns (-нибудь)

Negative pronouns (никто / ничто)

Numbers 11 to 20

Question	Answer
young woman	девушка
The young women have a lot of apples.	У девушек много яблок.
jar / can	банка
How many jars did you have?	Сколько банок у вас было?
box (cardboard)	коробка
We had five boxes and six jars.	У нас было пять коробок и шесть банок.
plum	слива
pear	груша
Yesterday we bought ten plums and five pears.	Вчера мы купили десять слив и пять груш.
fairy tale	сказка
He told us a lot of fairy tales.	Он рассказал нам много сказок.
berry	ягода
The young women bought a lot of berries.	Девушки купили много ягод.
I wrote you five letters.	Я написал вам пять писем.
shoe	туфля
Yesterday she bought five pairs of shoes.	Вчера она купила пять пар туфель.
pillow	подушка
Please buy five pillows somewhere.	Пожалуйста, купи где-нибудь пять подушек.
Do you like the color of the shoes?	Тебе нравится цвет туфель?
There is no water here.	Здесь нет воды.
There are five pillows lying on the bed.	На кровати лежит пять подушек.
Did you buy any berries?	Ты купил что-нибудь из ягод?
cherry	вишня
There are no pears, plums, or cherries here.	Здесь нет груш, слив или вишен.
There is no pillow in the box.	В коробке нет подушки.
I want to buy a kilogram of cherries.	Я хочу купить килограмм вишен.
The children know a lot of fairy tales.	Дети знают много сказок.