The Accusative: What You Want
Your second case is the one that carries desire: what you want, read, see, buy or love stands in the accusative. The best news in Russian grammar: most nouns don't visibly change at all.
The Direct Object
The accusative answers что? (what?) or кого? (whom?) after the verb:
Я читаю книгу.
I'm reading a book.
Note: книга → книгу: the book is what gets read, so it takes the accusative.
-а Becomes -у
The whole visible change: feminine nouns in -а/-я swap to -у/-ю.
| Dictionary form | Accusative | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| книга | книгу | Я читаю книгу. |
| вода | воду | Я хочу воду. |
| музыка | музыку | Я люблю музыку. |
| Анна | Анну | Она знает Анну. |
Names in -а bend too — знает Анну, любит маму.
The Lazy Rest
Masculine things and neuter nouns keep their dictionary form:
| Russian | English |
|---|---|
| Он читает журнал. | He's reading a magazine. |
| Я хочу кофе. | I want coffee. |
| Она знает слово. | She knows the word. |
хотеть — To Want
The verb of the lesson is famously irregular — it changes families mid-conjugation:
| Form | |
|---|---|
| я | хочу |
| ты | хочешь |
| он / она | хочет |
| мы | хотим |
| вы | хотите |
| они | хотят |
Что ты хочешь?
What do you want?
Я хочу пиццу и воду.
I want pizza and water.
А я хочу борщ!
And I want borscht!
Common Mistakes
- Bending everything. Only feminine -а nouns visibly change: я читаю журналу is wrong — журнал stays put.
- Forgetting the swap under pressure. Я хочу вода slips out easily; want takes воду.
- Regularizing хотеть. Мы хочем doesn't exist — хотим, хотите, хотят.
What You Can Do Now
You can say what you want, read, see and love — with the right endings. Combined with the prepositional, you now handle both halves of daily life: where things happen, and what you want there.