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Questions & Answers about Желаю удачи на экзамене!
Why is удачи in the genitive case instead of the accusative?
Verbs of wishing, like желать (to wish), require the thing being wished for to be in the genitive case. You can think of it as wishing "some" or "a portion of" luck. This is a strict rule in Russian for abstract nouns following this verb.
Why do we use на instead of в for "in the exam"?
In Russian, events, processes, and organized gatherings (like an exam, a meeting, or a concert) take the preposition на rather than в to indicate location. Since we are talking about the event where the luck is needed, экзамене is in the prepositional case.
Is it grammatically correct to leave out the word я (I) at the beginning of the sentence?
Yes! While Russian usually prefers to keep subject pronouns, it is extremely common to drop them in set phrases, greetings, and well-wishes. The -ю ending on желаю leaves no doubt that it is "I" doing the wishing, making the pronoun unnecessary.
If I wanted to explicitly say "I wish you luck", what case would "you" take?
You would use the dative case: Желаю тебе удачи! for informal situations, or Желаю вам удачи! for formal or plural situations. The person receiving the wish acts as the indirect object. However, leaving it out entirely, as seen in this sentence, is perfectly natural and idiomatic.