Russian cases: Accusative or Prepositional?

Я еду в Россию. Я живу в России. Or Я живу в Россию. Я еду в Россию. Which one to choose? As we know, it's not a problem in English. You just say, I'm going to Russia, I live in Russia, Russia, Russia, same word. What is the difference in Russian then? Let's figure this out. My name is Alina, and I'm going to explain to you how to use it correctly. The solution is quite simple. You just need to know Russian cases. And every case has its meaning, or in other words, situations when we need to use it. But today, our goal is to remember and to understand just one meaning of two cases, accusative and prepositional. Let's start with the accusative case, and its meaning here is directional. If you want to describe your motion somewhere, you definitely need to use it here. But if you're not familiar yet, what is this, how to apply these cases, and what to do with this information, you just need to know this. Every Russian case has its proper endings for nouns, adjectives, and numerals. We just need to learn all these endings by heart. And for the accusative case, the rule is very simple. We just change feminine nouns, and you replace the last letter of feminine nouns, usually, with letters У, Ю. For instance, we have Then, Россия, Россию, Я еду в Россию. Or Испания, Испанию, Я еду в Испанию. Neutral, male, and plural words we don't change. So, that's why we have Магазин, Магазин, Я иду в Магазин. Or Море, Море, Я еду на Море. You can ask me, which letter to use at the end, У or Ю. And that's easy too. If in the basic form you have А, like Работа, Аптека, you change it to У, so Работу, Аптеку. But if you have Я, Россия, Испания, you change it to soft one Ю, Россию, Испанию. Verbs of motion should be like a trigger for you here. You see the verb to go and bam, you realize right away that here you should use accusative case. But remember that verbs of motion are tricky. We have a lot of them. So, I suggest you to watch my video about verbs of motion. The second case is prepositional. You should apply this one when you're talking about location or the place of the action. And this one is even easier than accusative by its endings. Because here every noun, masculine, feminine and neutral, they all have Е at the end. For example, Магазин – в Магазине, Я – в Магазине, Работа – в Работе, Я – на Работе. And Море, Море the same, because it already has Е at the end in basic form. The only difference is plural form. It has endings АХ, ЯХ. So, Острова – на Островах, Я сейчас на Островах, на Мальдивах. Same logic of choosing the right letter here at the end. So, if we have in the basic form А, Е, О or any consonant, you put Е. So, Работе, Море, Магазине. But if you have Я, usually it's a female or ИЕ for neutral, like Здание, then you will put double И. So, России, Испании, Здании. But don't make an accent on this double И sound, or even worse, don't separate these two letters. Don't say России, И. Try to say one long sound И, России, Здании, И. Something like this. If in accusative case you had just one trigger, verb to go, here we can have a lot of them. Basically, any verb that can refer to a place where you can be located or situated indicates a prepositional case, like to live, to rest, to sit, to stand, to be. But be careful with to be, because this verb doesn't exist in present tense. So, basically, if you see the sentence in Russian, you won't see this verb there, but it is there if you translate it into English, like Я в магазине. So, in English, you say I am in the store. So, this part am indicates to the verb to be, and that's why here also prepositional case. Another important thing that I want you to remember is that right now we are talking only about places, not people. People will be different. So, if you want to say I am going to my friends, it won't be accusative, and I am at my friends, it won't be prepositional. It'll be two different cases, but I'll give you this information at the next lesson. And I want to give you one more trick that can really help you. Questions. When you're having a conversation, there is not much time to think or to reflect what case should we use. So, if person asks you Куда ты идёшь? Куда indicates accusative case. And this word Куда, like where are you going, has У sound in the middle. So, you should remember that for accusative, you also have У at the end, but only for feminine nouns, be careful here. And that's why Куда ты идёшь? Я иду на работу. But if the question starts with the word Где, где ты, which is also where are you, both can translate in English where are you, where are you. But this one is different. This one is locational question. So, где ты, where are you. And again, this word has Е at the end, the same as prepositional. So, где ты сейчас? Я сейчас в магазине. Or где ты отдыхаешь? Я отдыхаю в Дубае. Е, Е at the end. Now, let's check how you got the topic. I will tell you the sentence, and you will have to decide if it's accusative or prepositional case. You will have 5 seconds to think, and then I'll show you the right answer. Thank you very much for watching. I hope you answered all my questions correctly. Tricky questions sometimes. And this topic won't be a problem for you anymore. Subscribe to my channel and watch more videos with my explanation of Russian grammar.