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I recently wrote the following sentence as a practice exercise:

We can sleep on the floor.
Мы можем спать на по́ле.

After writing it, I learned that "по́ле" should be "полу́" and that "полу́" is in the locative case. I had already done some reading on the locative case previously, but clearly I need more practice before I consistently and accurately assess the need for it. Be that as it may, it made me take a look at all the cases that the word "пол" can take. In the process, I learned that not all nouns have a need for a locative case. For example, "по́ле" (field) does not appear to have a locative case.

Is there a list of nouns that do take the locative case? And is there any rhyme or reason to it? I ask this because if there is any sort of pattern to it, why would something like a "floor" need locative case, but not a "field?" If anyone happens to have either a list of nouns with a locative case or know of some sort of rule that helps one identify the types of nouns that would require it, what a helpful resource that would be.

Another thing I noticed, however, is that "пол" has a prepositional case, something I am assuming all Russian nouns have. (If there are any that do not, please enlighten me.) The thing is, I cannot come up with an example of when it would be used and all the examples I've seen of the prepositional case for "по́ле" are clearly referring to a "field" and not a "floor." Is there ever a time when one uses по́ле to refer to the floor? And if so, could you provide some examples?

Lisa Beck
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    https://ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/Категория:Русские_существительные_с_местным_падежом – Quassnoi Jul 25 '17 at 22:01
  • @Quassnoi - that worth to be an answer. See also Locative case - Местный падеж. There seem to be no rhyme or reason for locative case. It seems to be a relic of Proto-Slavic language. – Alexander Jul 25 '17 at 23:19
  • I just checked out your link. What a great resource! I concur with Alexander in that it could suffice as an answer, but still I would like to know if "по́ле" (as a prepositional case of "пол") "ever refers to a "floor," and if examples could be provided, even better. I'll leave this question open for a bit to see if that can't be answered, but if not, I definitely think I'd give Quassnoi's link in an answer post the green checkmark. Oh but nevermind, I see he has already done so. Once again, ,болбшое спасибоб, Quassnoi. – Lisa Beck Jul 26 '17 at 03:10
  • @Alexander: all nouns with locative are either declension II male or declension III, but aside from this no rhyme or reason indeed – Quassnoi Jul 26 '17 at 09:03

2 Answers2

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Sure, with any preposition except в or на:

  • … богатым было и внутреннее убранство церкви: старики упоминали о паркетном поле и хрустальном паникадиле

  • При наливном поле она (демпферная лента) устанавливается с целью компенсировать расширения бетона при нагреве, чтобы избежать его растрескивания.

Community
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Quassnoi
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Is there a list of nouns that do take the locative case?

Besides the Wiktionary link already provided by @Quassnoi, there is the Grammatical Dictionary of Russian by Andrey Zalizniak which lists these nouns:

Such nouns are marked with П2:

  • бе́рег м 3c①, П2(на)
  • ад м 1a—, П2(в)

The words in parenthesis are the prepositions to be used. Thus, one should say на берегу́ and в аду́ but not в берегу́ or на аду́.

We're losing Locative to the normal Propositional and it happens very fast - as we speak (literally!). Word by word. Such words have П2 in square brackets:

  • дуб м 1c, [П2(на)]

This means that both на дубу́ and на ду́бе are correct.

Sergey Slepov
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