3.10 Dative Plural

The dative plural profile

Plural recipients, experiencers, targets, and reference points take -ым/-им on long adjectives.

• Gender is neutralised. The noun normally ends in -ам/-ям, providing a strong cue to the phrase's dative plural profile.
• Control point: Plural gender does not select an ending. The adjective family selects -ым or -им after the construction selects dative plural.

Choosing -ым or -им

The diagnostic families work across the plural oblique paradigm.

• True-soft and spelling-rule adjectives use -им; transparent hard adjectives use -ым. Stressed большо́й produces больши́м.
• Control point: Write one и in -им even when the stem already contains doubled consonants: ру́сским, not *ру́сскиим.

Multiple recipients and beneficiaries

Transfer and communication frames retain the same recipient-theme architecture in the plural.

• The dative recipient uses -ым/-им; the theme takes whatever case its own construction requires.
• Control point: Irregular дете́м? No: the standard dative plural is де́тям. Retrieve the noun form independently of regular adjective -им.
• Retrieval checkpoint: Pause and reconstruct the diagnostic forms from the last three lessons without looking, then check what you missed.

Plural experiencers

Dative plural presents a group as experiencers of states, needs, evaluations, or preferences.

• The predicate may be invariant, an infinitive may follow, or a nominative theme may control the verb.
• Control point: Do not force nominative onto the experiencer. In нра́виться, agreement belongs to the liked theme.

Targets with к

К + dative plural marks orientation or movement toward multiple people, objects, or reference points.

• Animacy is irrelevant to dative agreement. Both human targets and inanimate targets use the same adjective pattern.
• Control point: Only accusative agreement uses the animate/inanimate split. Dative plural stays -ым/-им for every head.

Routes, standards, and distribution with по

Plural по + dative frames cover movement over multiple paths, conformity to standards, and distribution among sets.

• Meaning determines whether plural is intended; по itself does not automatically pluralise the phrase.
• Control point: Distinguish ordinary plural dative from distributive numeral constructions; the head's intended quantity controls the form.
• Retrieval checkpoint: Pause and reconstruct the diagnostic forms from the last three lessons without looking, then check what you missed.

Oblique numerals regularise agreement

Outside basic nominative/accusative counting, numerals, adjectives, and nouns normally express the same oblique plural case.

• This removes the hybrid two-four pattern seen in два но́вых до́ма. In dative, all parts align as dative plural.
• Numeral checkpoint: Do not preserve genitive-plural adjective forms after the numeral declines: *к двум но́вых дома́м is nonstandard.

Irregular and invariant heads

Adjective agreement can expose dative plural even when the noun is irregular or formally invariant.

• Plural-only and indeclinable nouns still have syntactic case. Learn whether the head is singular or plural and let the adjective display the selected profile.
• Control point: Case is a syntactic feature, not a requirement that every word visibly change.

Dative plural versus instrumental singular

Forms in -ым/-им can be either dative plural or masculine/neuter instrumental singular.

• The noun ending and governor resolve the ambiguity: студе́нтам is dative plural; студе́нтом is instrumental singular.
• Control point: Never assign case and number from an adjective ending in isolation. Agreement paradigms deliberately reuse forms.
• Retrieval checkpoint: Pause and reconstruct the diagnostic forms from the last three lessons without looking, then check what you missed.

Dative plural assessment

Form the unified plural ending, then verify recipient, experiencer, target, route, or numeral syntax.