2.11 · Practice ready Instrumental Singular 0 of 10 lessons complete
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Instrumental Singular

Means, accompaniment, roles, states, spatial relations, and spelling after sibilants

form masculine, neuter, feminine, and soft-sign instrumental singular nouns express tools, means, accompaniment, roles, and predicate complements use the main instrumental prepositions for static spatial relations contrast с + genitive/instrumental and motion accusative/static instrumental

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Before you start

Prerequisites
Complete Module 2.10 first
Estimated time
50 minutes
Lesson steps
10

Deliberately not taught here

  • Agentive instrumental in passive constructions is mentioned only as an extension; participles and passive voice belong to a later system.
Small steps

What you will learn

  1. The instrumental meaning network Instrumental construes an entity as a means, companion, role, state, spatial reference point, or other accompanying circumstance.
  2. Masculine and neuter -ом/-ем Hard stems normally take -ом; soft and /j/-related stems take -ем, with lexical stress.
  3. Spelling after sibilants and ц After ж, ш, ч, щ, and ц, stressed and unstressed instrumental endings are written differently.
  4. Feminine -ой/-ей and long variants Hard -а nouns usually take -ой; soft -я and -ия nouns take -ей, with stress-sensitive spelling after sibilants and ц.
  5. Feminine -ь and irregular singulars Feminine soft-sign nouns take -ью; several high-frequency irregulars expose extended stems.
  6. Tools and means Bare instrumental marks an instrument, medium, vehicle, or manner by which an action is carried out.
  7. Accompaniment with с с + instrumental means together with; с + genitive means from or off.
  8. Profession, role, and predicate instrumental After быть in past/future and after verbs of becoming or working as, Russian commonly uses instrumental for the role or state.
  9. Instrumental prepositions and position над, под, пе́ред, за, and ме́жду use instrumental for a static spatial relation or reference point.
  10. Instrumental singular assessment Build the form, then explain the instrumental construal or preposition.
Mastery

Ready means you can...

  • form masculine, neuter, feminine, and soft-sign instrumental singular nouns
  • express tools, means, accompaniment, roles, and predicate complements
  • use the main instrumental prepositions for static spatial relations
  • contrast с + genitive/instrumental and motion accusative/static instrumental
Next module 2.12 Instrumental Plural Regular -ами/-ями, special -ьми forms, plural means, companions, roles, and case-system capstone