Russian grammar · the case system

The instrumental case in Russian

кем? чем?Instrument, company, becoming

The instrumental marks the tool the action is done with and, after с, the company it is done in. It also follows a family of verbs learners meet constantly, стать and заниматься first among them, and it colors the set expressions for times of day and seasons.

Aurélien CuvelierAug 10, 2026

The endings, with a declined example per ending

Masculine

-ом / -ем

столом · музеем · словарём

Feminine

-ой / -ей

сестрой · неделей

Neuter

-ом / -ем

окном · морем

Plural

-ами / -ями

столами · словарями · окнами

The personal pronouns in this case

ямной

тытобой

оним

онаей

оноим

мынами

вывами

ониими

When to use it

The instrument

писать ручкой (write with a pen), ехать поездом (go by train): no preposition needed.

Company with с

гулять с другом (walk with a friend), кофе с молоком (coffee with milk).

After стать, заниматься, гордиться

What you become, do or take pride in stands in the instrumental: стать врачом (become a doctor).

Times and seasons

утром (in the morning), вечером (in the evening), зимой (in winter): frozen instrumentals Russians use daily.

In a real sentence

nom.ins

The children are drawing with a pencil.

Watch out

The instrumental hides in plain sight inside everyday adverbs: утром (in the morning), вечером, ночью, весной, зимой are simply nouns standing in the bare instrumental. And professions take it after стать and работать: она работает учителем, she works as a teacher, no as required.

The other cases

All six cases on one page, with the full chart ›Download this chart as a free printable PDF (A4) ›

Master the cases where they live: in real sentences

Written by

Aurélien Cuvelier Founder, NuanceDeck

Aurélien Cuvelier builds NuanceDeck: the app, and the verification pipeline behind its dictionary. Every entry is grounded in the official TORFL lexical minimum and a 20,000-word frequency corpus, and every example sentence passes a certification review before it ships.

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