Russian grammar · the case system
The prepositional case in Russian
о ком? о чём? Location, topic; never without a preposition
The prepositional is the only Russian case that never appears without a preposition, which is also the kindest thing about it: see в, на, о or при before a noun ending in -е, and you have almost certainly found it. It marks where things are and what things are about.
Aurélien CuvelierAug 10, 2026The endings, with a declined example per ending
| Masculine | -е / -и | столе · музее · словаре |
|---|---|---|
| Feminine | -е / -и | сестре · неделе |
| Neuter | -е / -и | окне · море |
| Plural | -ах / -ях | столах · словарях · окнах |
The personal pronouns in this case
| я | обо мне |
|---|---|
| ты | о тебе |
| он | о нём |
| она | о ней |
| оно | о нём |
| мы | о нас |
| вы | о вас |
| они | о них |
When to use it
Location with в and на
Being somewhere (not going there): в Москве (in Moscow), на работе (at work). Compare the accusative, which the same prepositions take for direction.
Topic with о
говорить о работе (talk about work), думать о лете (think about summer).
With при
In the presence of, attached to, under: при детях (in front of the children).
In a real sentence
Мы говорим о работе. We are talking about work.
Watch out
Two things bite here. The в/на choice is partly conventional: Russian says на почте (at the post office) and на работе (at work) where logic suggests в. And a set of short masculine nouns takes a stressed -у instead of -е for location: в лесу (in the forest), в аэропорту, на мосту. Both are memorized word by word, which is what the cards are for.
The other cases
- The nominative case in Russian
- The genitive case in Russian
- The dative case in Russian
- The accusative case in Russian
- The instrumental case in Russian
All six cases on one page, with the full chart ›The Russian grammar map: where the cases fit in the whole system ›Download this chart as a free printable PDF (A4) ›
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Aurélien Cuvelier Founder, NuanceDeck
Aurélien Cuvelier builds NuanceDeck, the app that teaches Russian and French words in context. Each course follows the official proficiency word lists and a frequency corpus for its language, and every word comes with real, annotated example sentences.
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