The Genitive Case

In the example sentence, Igor is in the genitive case. The genitive case is usually used to describe possession of something or someone by something or someone.  Even in standard English, we change the ending of the word to describe to whom the book belongs -- Igor's (the 's indicate possession).  Russian does the same thing, though in a more detailed fashion.  Just like in English, nouns that are used in the genitive case "possess" another noun (person or thing). Like in all Russian cases, adjectives will agree with the noun they modify and go into the same case.

Igor's book
книга Игоря

Igor is the owner of the book (and hence possesses it). Another way to say this in English is "the book of Igor" (which corresponds more closely to the standard Russian word order, though the word which is changed in Russian is the same word which takes the 's in English).  "Of" is often a key word for this case.

Many prepositions also require the genitive, among them the prepositions "у" ("at, by"), "около" ("around/by"), "с"/"из"/"от" (all "from"), "до" ("to/up to"). Most of these prepositions literally have to do with location (though the concepts are not to be confused with the prepositional case!).

Another major use of the genitive is to express absolute negation, as in the concept "I have none of that," or "I don't understand any of it." The English is a bit inaccurate and a bit forced, but French has some closer equivalences: "Il n'y a pas de manger a la maison." In Russian, negation of what would be a positive statement of possession (ie., "У меня есть тепевизор" -- "I have a television") is placed in the genitive ("У меня нет телевизора" -- " I don't have a television"). As well, nouns which would occur as a direct object in the accusative case (such as "я вижу книгу" -- "I see the book") can be placed in the genitive when negated: "я не вижу книги" ("I don't see any/the book").

Now for some case charts. Immediately below are singular nouns as examples. Note that the word in the middle is in the nominative, the word on the right is in the genitive singular.

NOTE: All endings can vary between hard and soft variants depending on the consonant.

Now for the genitive plural of nouns. These endings are the same as the accusative plural of animate nouns. The word in the middle is in the nominative singular; on the right it is in the genitive plural. This is the most complicated set of endings in Russian.

NOTE:Remember that these endings can also vary based on hardness and softness of the stems.

ADJECTIVES

Adjectives, as would be expected, follow the same ideas as the nouns and change when they do. In the tables below is a summary of the adjective endings and how they change. Remember that spelling rules and hardness and softness constraints play a role here, too (see the Nominative Case page and the alphabet page for more information).