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In the phrase:

дом Ивана

"Иван" is in the genitive, which means that the above translates to "Ivan's house". Following this pattern, if I wanted to say "my house", I should logically be able to do that by using я in the genitive:

дом меня

However, in practice I always hear it as "мой дом". Is it ever possible to use "дом меня" to mean "my house"? If so, how is it different to "мой дом"?

Yellow Sky
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Jack M
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2 Answers2

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The English possessive pronouns are always rendered into Russian as the Russian possessive pronouns, never as the Russian personal pronouns in the Genitive case, just the same way as you would not say it in English '*the house of me'. The function of the Russian personal pronouns in the Genitive case is

  • to follow the prepositions that govern the Genitive case: от меня, для тебя, etc.
  • to follow the verbs that govern the Genitive case: Он боится меня, Я избегаю его, etc.

Note, that the Genitive case forms of all the Russian personal pronouns coincides with their the Accusative case forms.

Yellow Sky
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No, it could be said only as a joke. You may think it like

  • Possessive: Иванов дом = Ivan's house (OK); мой дом = my house (OK)
  • Genitive: дом Ивана = house of Ivan (OK); дом меня = house of me (WRONG)
Matt
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  • What form is "Иванов"? – Jack M Sep 27 '15 at 15:23
  • @JackM - "Ивáнов" is a possessive adjective meaning "Ivan's", something like "Ivanian", like in English you have adjectives formed from proper nouns, like 'Shakespearean', 'Orwellian', etc. – Yellow Sky Sep 27 '15 at 15:47
  • @JackM This is possessive adjective. http://russkiyyazik.ru/721 – Matt Sep 27 '15 at 15:47
  • @YellowSky "Shakespearean" = "шекспировский"; "Shakespear's" = "Шекспиров". These are different forms in Russian. – Matt Sep 27 '15 at 15:53
  • @user4419802 - Sure, still that's the closest English phenomenon to the Russian possessive adjectives. – Yellow Sky Sep 27 '15 at 16:12
  • I'd never heard of possessive adjectives. So is the genitive case never used to express ownership (of a possession by a person)? Is it only for properties of things and parts of things? (the top of the mountain, the handle of the cup, etc) – Jack M Sep 29 '15 at 12:16
  • @JackM No, you may use genitive for both persons and things. On the other hand, possessive adjectives are for persons/animals only (except rare poetic samples, like "стёганье одеялово" etc.). – Matt Sep 29 '15 at 13:12
  • @user4419802 Well, if you use possessive pronouns for pronouns and possessive adjectives for proper nouns, what other situation is there in which you might express a person's ownership by the genitive? – Jack M Sep 29 '15 at 13:16
  • @JackM Genitive is often used to denote the person's possession too. Saying which is more appropriate (genitive or poss. adj.) is a non-trivial question on its own. – Matt Sep 29 '15 at 13:33