Declension of Russian and foreign names and surnames. Declension of foreign names and surnames

1. C declension of surnames ending in -ov (-ev,), -in (-yn), -sky (-tsky),i.e., the so-called standard surnames, does not cause difficulties for native speakers. You just need to remember two important rules.

A. Borrowed surnames on -ov, -in, which belong foreigners, in the instrumental form have the ending -ohm(as nouns of the second school declension, for example table, table): the theory was proposed by Darwin, the film was directed by Chaplin, the book was written by Cronin.(Interestingly, the pseudonym is also inclined Green, owned by a Russian writer: the book is written Green.) Homonymous Russian surnames have an ending - th in instrumental form: with Chaplin(from the dialect word chaplya"heron"), with Cronin(from crown).

B. Female surnames on - ina type Currant, Pearl inclined in two ways, depending on the declension of the male surname ( Irina Zhemchuzhina and Irina Zhemchuzhina,Zoe Smorodina and Zoya Smorodina). If the male surname is Zhemchuzhin, then it is correct: arrival Irina Zhemchuzhina. If the male surname is Pearl, then it is correct: arrival Irina Zhemchuzhina(surname is declined as a common noun pearl).

2. Now we go directly to the so-called non-standard surnames. The first thing to remember is that, contrary to popular misconception, the gender of the bearer of a surname does not always affect inclination/non-inclination. Even less often, this is influenced by the origin of the surname. First of all, it matters what sound the surname ends with - a consonant or a vowel..

3. We will immediately describe several groups of indeclinable surnames. In modern Russian literary language do not bow Russian surnames, ending in -s, -ih (type Black, Long), as well as all surnames, ending in vowels e, and, o, y, s, e, y.
Examples: notebooks by Irina Chernykh, Lydia Meie, Roman Grymau; the diploma was given to Victor Dolgikh, Andrey Gretry, Nikolay Shtanenko, Maya Lee; meeting with Nikolai Kruchenykh and Svetlana Busse.

Note. In colloquial speech and in the language of fiction, reflecting oral speech, it is considered acceptable to decline male surnames on - uh, -ih (in Chernykh's script, meeting with Kruchenykh), as well as the declension of surnames of Ukrainian origin into -ko, -enko according to the declension of nouns female on the -a: go to Semashka, visiting Ustimenka.

4. If last name ends in a consonant(except for surnames on -oh, -them, which were mentioned above), then here - and only here! - the gender of the bearer of the surname matters. All male surnames ending in a consonant are inclined - this is the law of Russian grammar. All female surnames ending in a consonant are not declined. In this case, the linguistic origin of the surname does not matter. Men's surnames are also declined, coinciding with common nouns.
Examples: Mikhail Bock's notebook, diplomas issued to Alexander Krug and Konstantin Korol, meeting with Igor Shipelevich, visiting Andrey Martynyuk, daughter of Ilya Skalozub, work of Isaac Akopyan; notebook of Anna Bock, diplomas issued to Natalia Krug and Lydia Korol, meeting with Yulia Shipelevich, visiting Ekaterina Martynyuk, daughter of Svetlana Skalozub, work of Marina Akopyan.

Note 1. Male surnames of East Slavic origin, having a fluent vowel during declension, can be inclined in two ways - with and without loss of a vowel: Mikhail Zayats and Mikhail Zayets, with Alexander Zhuravel and Alexander Zhuravl, Igor Gritsevets and Igor Gritsevets. In a number of sources, declension without dropping a vowel is recognized as preferable (i.e. Hare, Crane, Gritsevets), because surnames also perform a legal function. But the final choice is up to the bearer of the surname. It is important to adhere to the chosen type of declension in all documents.

Note 2. Separately, it is necessary to say about surnames ending in a consonant th. If preceded by a vowel and(less often about), the surname can be inclined in two ways. Surnames such as Topchy, Pobozhiy, Boky, Ore, can be perceived as having endings -oh, -oh and inflect as adjectives ( Topchy, Topchy, feminine Topchaya, Topchaya), and it is possible - as having a zero ending with a declension similar to nouns ( Topchia, Topchia, feminine invariant form Topchy). If consonant th at the end of the surname, any other vowel precedes, the surname obeys the general rules (Igor Shakhrai, Nikolai Adzhubei, but Inne Shakhrai, Alexandre Adjubey).

5. If last name ends in a vowel -я preceded by another vowel (ex: Shengelaya, Breaking, Rhea, Beria, Danelia), she is bows down.
Examples: notebook by Inna Shengelai, diploma issued to Nikolay Lomaya, meeting with Anna Rhea; crimes of Lavrenty Beria, meeting with George Danelia.

6. If last name ends in a vowel -a preceded by another vowel (ex.: Galois, Morois, Delacroix, Moravia, Eria, Heredia, Gulia), she is does not bow.
Examples: notebook Nicholas Galua, diploma issued to Irina Eria, meeting with Igor Gulia.

7. And the last group of surnames - ending in -а, -я, preceded by a consonant. Here - and only here! - the origin of the surname and the place of stress in it matter. There are only two exceptions to keep in mind:

BUT. Don't bow down French surnames with an accent on the last syllable: books by Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola and Anna Gavalda, goals by Diarra and Drogba.

B. Predominantly do not bow Finnish surnames ending in - a unstressed: meeting with Mauno Pekkala(although in a number of sources it is recommended to incline them too).

All other surnames (Slavic, Eastern and others; ending in stressed and unstressed -and I) bow down. Contrary to a common misconception, surnames that coincide with common nouns are also declined.
Examples: notebook by Irina Groza, diploma issued to Nikolai Mukha, lecture by Elena Kara-Murza, songs by Bulat Okudzhava, roles by Igor Kvasha.

Note. There are fluctuations in declination Japanese surnames, but reference manuals note that in recent times such surnames are consistently declined: Kurosawa films.

Here, in fact, are all the main rules; As you can see, there aren't too many of them. Now we can refute the misconceptions listed above related to the declension of surnames. So, contrary to popular belief: a) there is no rule “all Armenian, Georgian, Polish, etc. surnames do not decline” - the declension of surnames obeys the laws of the grammar of the language, and if the final element of the surname lends itself to Russian inflection, it declines; b) the rule “male surnames decline, female ones do not” does not apply to all surnames, but only to those that end in a consonant; c) the coincidence of the surname in form with common nouns is not an obstacle to their declension.

It is important to remember: the surname is word and, like all words, it must obey the grammatical laws of the language. In this sense, there is no difference between sentences Certificate issued to Hunger Ivan(instead of correct Hunger Ivan) and The villagers were suffering from hunger.(instead of suffered from hunger), there is a grammatical error in both sentences.

It is also important to follow the rules of declension of surnames because the refusal to change the cases of the declined surname can lead to misunderstandings and incidents, and disorient the addressee of the speech. Indeed, imagine the following situation: a person with the surname Thunderstorm signed his work: article by Nikolai Groz. According to the laws of Russian grammar, a male surname ending in the genitive singular. numbers on - a, is restored in its original form, in the nominative case, with a zero ending, so the reader will make an unambiguous conclusion: the author's name is Nicholas Groz. Submitted to the dean's office work A. Pogrebnyak will lead to the search for a student (Anna? Antonina? Alice?) Pogrebnyak, and the student Alexander Pogrebnyak's belonging to her will still have to be proved. It is necessary to follow the rules of declension of surnames for the same reason that it is necessary to follow the rules of spelling, otherwise a situation arises similar to the famous "opteka" described by L. Uspensky in "Word about words".

Therefore, we suggest that you remember the elementary truth number 8.

ABC Truth No. 8. The declension of surnames obeys the laws of the grammar of the Russian language. There is no rule "all Armenian, Georgian, Polish, etc. surnames are not bowed." The declension of the surname depends primarily on what sound the surname ends with - a consonant or a vowel. The rule "male surnames decline, female ones do not" does not apply to all surnames, but only to those that end inconsonant. The coincidence of the surname in form with common nouns(Fly, Hare, Sticketc.) is not an obstacle to their declination.

Most Russian surnames are declined according to the rules of the Russian language. However, there are many surnames of foreign origin, the endings of which differ from the typical endings of Russian surnames. Two questions arise: to incline them or not, how to incline? Consider different cases of declension of surnames:

1. Surnames ending in -ov / ev, -in / yn, -skiy / skoy, -tskiy / tskoy, make up the bulk of Russian surnames. Their declension usually does not raise questions and occurs with the addition of endings according to the following rules:

Table 1. Surnames beginning with -ov/-ova

case	case question	Male surname	Female surname	Plural
I.p.	who?	Ivanov	Ivanova	Ivanovs
R.p.	whom?	Ivanov a	Ivanov oh	Ivanov s
D.p.	to whom?	Ivanov at	Ivanov oh	Ivanov th
V.p.	whom?	Ivanov a	Ivanov at	Ivanov s
etc.	by whom?	Ivanov th	Ivanov oh	Ivanov s
P.p.	about whom?	about Ivanov e	about Ivanov oh	about Ivanov s

Table 2. Surnames in -sky/-sky

case	case question	Male surname	Female surname	Plural
I.p.	who?	Akhtyrsky	Akhtyrskaya	Akhtyrsky
R.p.	whom?	Akhtyrsk wow	Akhtyrsk oh	Akhtyrsk them
D.p.	to whom?	Akhtyrsk omu	Akhtyrsk oh	Akhtyrsk them
V.p.	whom?	Akhtyrsk wow	Akhtyrsk wow	Akhtyrsk them
etc.	by whom?	Akhtyrsk them	Akhtyrsk oh	Akhtyrsk them
P.p.	about whom?	about Akhtyrsk ohm	about Akhtyrsk oh	about Akhtyrsk them

2. Surnames consonant with adjectives are declined in accordance with the declension of masculine and feminine adjectives and in the plural: Dashing, Tolstaya, White, Great.

Table 3. Surnames consonant with adjectives

case	case question	Male surname	Female surname	Plural
I.p.	who? what / what?	Dashing	Dashing	Dashing
R.p.	whom? what / what?	Lich wow	Lich oh	Lich them
D.p.	to whom? to what/what?	Lich omu	Lich oh	Lich them
V.p.	whom? what/which one?	Lich wow	Lich wow	Lich them
etc.	by whom? what / what?	Lich them	Lich oh	Lich them
P.p.	about whom? about what/about what?	o Lich ohm	o Lich oh	o Lich them

3. Surnames consonant with a noun are declined according to gender, grammatical gender does not affect declension. Including foreign-language ones without stress on the last syllable. Examples of surnames: Melnik, Guitar, Bull, Crow, Chernous, Shcherba, Kafka. Masculine surnames (Melnik, Coward) are declined in men according to the rule of declension of masculine nouns, in women and in the plural they are not declined. Feminine surnames (Guitar, Friday) for men and women are declined according to the rules of declension of feminine nouns, in the plural the surname has the form of the nominative case for men and does not decline by cases.

Table 4. Surnames consonant with masculine nouns

case	case question	Male surname	Female surname	Plural
I.p.	who?	Miller	Miller	Miller
R.p.	whom?	Miller a
D.p.	to whom?	Miller at
V.p.	whom?	Miller a
etc.	by whom?	Miller ohm
P.p.	about whom?	about Melnik e

Table 5. Surnames consonant with feminine nouns

case	case question	Male surname	Female surname	Plural
I.p.	who?	Guitar	Guitar	Guitar
R.p.	whom?	Guitar s	Guitar s
D.p.	to whom?	Guitar e	Guitar e
V.p.	whom?	Guitar at	Guitar at
etc.	by whom?	Guitar oh	Guitar oh
P.p.	about whom?	about Guitar e	Guitar e

Note 1. It is worth clarifying the stress in surnames ending in -a, since the ending of the instrumental case depends on this. Compare: Lefty - Lefty, Lefty - Lefty.
Note 2. French surnames with accent ending -a, -i, do not bow: Emile Zola, Pierre Broca, about Alexandre Dumas.

From the questions received by the “Information Bureau” of “Gramoty.ru”:

Hello, my surname is Ossa, the emphasis is on O, they wrote Osse in my diploma, and now I have to do an examination, which costs a lot of money to prove that the surname is not inclined.
My last name is Pogrebnyak. It's a Ukrainian surname, and they don't seem to bow. Some people decline my last name, write Pogrebnyak, Pogrebnyak, Pogrebnyak. Is it possible?
My surname is Eroshevich, she is of Polish origin (this is known for sure). I'm interested in the following question: is my surname declined? My relative (male) was issued a certificate in which the surname was declined. And with this certificate, they did not take him anywhere. They said that the surname does not decline. Teachers also say that they do not incline, but on your website it says that they incline. I am confused!

Such questions are not uncommon in the "Help Desk" of our portal. Most often they are asked in May-June and at the very beginning of September. This is connected, of course, with the fact that at the end school year graduates of schools and universities receive certificates and diplomas, and in September, children go to school and begin to sign notebooks. The certificate and diploma will definitely say to whom it was issued (i.e., last name in the dative case), and on the cover of the notebook - whose it is (i.e., last name in the genitive case). And in cases where the student's last name does not end in -ov(s), -in (-yn) or - sky (-sky)(i.e., it does not belong to the so-called standard ones), the question almost always arises: is it necessary to incline the surname and, if so, how exactly to incline? It is with him that native speakers turn to linguists for help. And this question is often followed by another: “How to prove that the surname is inclined?” or “How to defend the right to not decline the surname?”. The question "To incline or not to incline the surname?" often goes beyond the language, causing fierce disputes and leading to serious conflicts.

Of course, such questions come not only from students, their parents and teachers, they are asked throughout the year, but the peaks of calls to linguists are in May-June and September, due to the aggravation of this problem in schools and universities. This is no coincidence: after all, in educational institution many native speakers have their first meeting with a specialist - a teacher of the Russian language, and the teacher's requirement to change the last name, which in the family has always been considered unchanged, surprises, annoys and rebuffs. Similar difficulties are experienced by office workers (secretaries, clerks), who are faced with the categorical demands of the management not to inflect inflected surnames.

The experience of our "Information Bureau" shows that the laws of declension of surnames are really unknown a large number native speakers (and even some philologists), although they are given in many reference books on the Russian language, including widely available ones. Among these manuals are the "Handbook of Spelling and Literary Editing" by D. E. Rozental, the stylistic dictionary of options by L. K. Graudina, V. A. Itskovich, L. P. Katlinskaya "Grammatical Correctness of Russian Speech" (3rd edition - under the heading “Dictionary of grammatical variants of the Russian language”), “Dictionary of Russian personal names” by A.V. Superanskaya, research by L.P. Kalakutskaya “Surnames. Names. Patronymic. Writing and their declension” and many other sources. A study of Internet user requests and monitoring of the blogosphere allow us to conclude that there are many misconceptions among native speakers regarding the rules for declension of surnames. Here are the main ones: the decisive factor is the linguistic origin of the surname (“Georgian, Armenian, Polish surnames, etc. are not inclined”); in all cases, the declension of the surname depends on the gender of the carrier; surnames that match common nouns (Thunderstorm, Beetle, Stick) are not inclined. A considerable number of native speakers are convinced that there are so many rules for declension of surnames that it is not possible to remember them.

To show that all these ideas are not true, we present the basic rules for declension of surnames. They are taken from the sources listed above and formulated by us in the form step by step instructions, a kind of algorithm with which you can quickly find the answer to the question: "Does the surname decline?".

Here is the algorithm.

1. As stated above, declension of surnames ending in -ov (-ev,), -in (-yn), -sky (-tsky), i.e., the so-called standard surnames, does not cause difficulties for native speakers. You just need to remember two important rules.

B. Female surnames on - ina type Currant, Pearl inclined in two ways, depending on the declension of the male surname ( Irina Zhemchuzhina and Irina Zhemchuzhina, Zoe Smorodina and Zoya Smorodina). If the male surname is Zhemchuzhin, then it is correct: arrival Irina Zhemchuzhina. If the male surname is Pearl, then it is correct: arrival Irina Zhemchuzhina(surname is declined as a common noun pearl).

Examples: notebooks by Irina Chernykh, Lydia Meie, Roman Grymau; the diploma was given to Victor Dolgikh, Andrey Gretry, Nikolay Shtanenko, Maya Lee; meeting with Nikolai Kruchenykh and Alexander Minadze.

Note. In colloquial speech and in the language of fiction, reflecting oral speech, it is considered acceptable to decline male surnames to - uh, -ih (in Chernykh's scenario, meeting with Ryzhykh), as well as the declension of surnames of Ukrainian origin into -ko, -enko according to the declension of feminine nouns -a: go to Semashka, visiting Ustimenka. Note that Ukrainian surnames of this type were consistently declined in fiction 19th century ( at Shevchenko; Nalivaika's confession; poem dedicated to Rodzyanka).

7. And the last group of surnames - ending in -а, -я, preceded by a consonant . Here - and only here! - the origin of the surname and the place of stress in it matter. There are only two exceptions to keep in mind:

BUT. Don't bow down French surnames with an accent on the last syllable: books by Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola and Anna Gavalda, aphorisms by Jacques Derrida, goals by Diarra and Drogba.

B. Predominantly do not bow Finnish surnames ending in - a unstressed: meeting with Mauno Pekkala(although in a number of sources it is recommended to incline them too).

All other surnames (Slavic, Eastern and others; ending in stressed and unstressed -and I) bow down. Contrary to a common misconception, surnames that coincide with common nouns are also declined.
Examples: Irina Groza's notebook, Nikolay Mukha's diploma, Elena Kara-Murza's lecture, Bulat Okudzhava's songs, Igor Kvasha's roles, Akira Kurosawa's films.

Note. There were fluctuations in the declension of Japanese surnames before, but reference books note that recently such surnames have been consistently declined, and in A. A. Zaliznyak’s “Grammar Dictionary of the Russian Language” there is an indeclinable version at Akutagawa along with the inflexible near Okudzhava, called "gross violation of the norm" .

It is also important to follow the rules of declension of surnames because the refusal to change the cases of the declined surname can lead to misunderstandings and incidents, and disorient the addressee of the speech. In fact, imagine the situation: a person with the surname Thunderstorm signed his work: article by Nikolai Groz. According to the laws of Russian grammar, a male surname ending in the genitive singular. numbers on - a, is restored in its original form, in the nominative case, with a zero ending, so the reader will make an unambiguous conclusion: the author's name is Nicholas Groz. Submitted to the dean's office work A. Pogrebnyak will lead to the search for a student (Anna? Antonina? Alice?) Pogrebnyak, and the student Alexander Pogrebnyak's belonging to her will still have to be proved. It is necessary to follow the rules of declension of surnames for the same reason that it is necessary to follow the rules of spelling, otherwise a situation arises similar to the famous "opteka" described by L. Uspensky in "Word about words". The authors of the "Dictionary of grammatical variants of the Russian language" L. K. Graudina, V. A. Itskovich, L. P. Katlinskaya indicate: case of a surname from its oblique cases.

Therefore, we suggest that you remember the elementary truth number 8.

ABC Truth No. 8. The declension of surnames obeys the laws of the grammar of the Russian language. There is no rule "all Armenian, Georgian, Polish, etc. surnames are not bowed." The declension of the surname depends primarily on what sound the surname ends with - a consonant or a vowel. The rule "male surnames decline, female ones do not" does not apply to all surnames, but only to those that end in consonant. The coincidence of the surname in form with common nouns (Fly, Hare, Stick etc.) is not an obstacle to their declination.

Literature:

Ageenko F. L. Dictionary of proper names of the Russian language. M., 2010.
Graudina L. K., Itskovich V. A., Katlinskaya L. P. Dictionary of grammatical variants of the Russian language. -3rd ed., ster. M., 2008.
Zaliznyak A. A. Grammatical Dictionary of the Russian Language. - 5th ed., Rev. M., 2008.
Kalakutskaya L.P. Surnames. Names. Patronymic. Writing and declension. M., 1994.
Rosenthal D. E. Handbook of spelling and literary editing. - 8th ed., Rev. and additional M., 2003.
Superanskaya A.V. Dictionary of Russian personal names. M., 2004.

V. M. Pakhomov,
Candidate of Philology,
editor-in-chief of the Gramota.ru portal

Often in an ordinary conversation, during a discussion of certain familiar people, we incline their surnames, not really thinking about whether they incline at all. And if in a friendly conversation this is not so important, then, for example, in business documentation it is necessary to pay attention to such nuances. There are certain rules for declension of surnames in Russian.

In order not to be confused, it is worth remembering school curriculum Russian language, including the study of cases. Let's take as an example the standard Russian surname Sidorov and decline it both in the masculine and in the feminine:

Nominative (who?) - Sidorov (m.r.), Sidorova (female);

Genitive (of whom?) - Sidorova (m.r.), Sidorova (female);

Dative (to whom?) - Sidorov (m.r.), Sidorova (female);

Accusative (of whom?) - Sidorov (m.r.), Sidorov (female);

Creative (by whom?) - Sidorov (m.r.), Sidorova (female);

Prepositional (about whom?) - about Sidorov (m.r.), about Sidorova (female).

Surnames like the one above are the easiest to decline. But there are surnames in which there is no suffix, for example, Koshevoy, Lanovoy, Tolstoy, Armored.

The rules for declension of surnames of this type are the same as for adjectives, that is, it will be correct to write like this: Lanovoy, Lanovoy, Lanovoy, Lanovoy, Lanovoy, about Lanovoy. In the feminine gender, the surname will sound like Lanovaya, Tolstaya, Armored, etc. Like names and surnames ending in -sky, -tsky, -sky, -tsky, -ev, -in, -yn, -ov.

If among your acquaintances there is a person by the name of Gladkikh, Cheremny, Maly, etc., then remember that this is the surname of a frozen form that does not decline. Also, the rules prohibit inflecting surnames of foreign origin ending in -i, -i, -i, -i. Do not decline and those that end in -yago, -ago. Simply put, typical surnames of Russian origin should be declined as adjectives, and atypical and foreign ones as nouns.

However, there are surnames ending in -o. For example, Shevchenko, Prikhodko, Gusko, Makarenko. In this case, the rules for declension of male surnames, as well as female surnames with such an ending, state that such surnames do not decline either in the singular or in Also, female surnames ending in -y, -b or This and such surnames can decline only if they belong to a man. For example: “Give this to Vladimir Vlasyuk” and “Give this to Natalya Vlasyuk”, or “Call Sergei Matskevich” and “Invite Veronika Matskevich”.

If a male surname ends in -а or -я (Skovoroda, Golovnya, Mayboroda), then the rules for declension of surnames allow you to change the endings. For example, Vasya Soroka, Vasya Soroka, Vasya Soroka, Vasya Soroka, etc. Foreign surnames that end in a vowel (Dumas, Hugo, Stradivari, Rossini) cannot be declined. Also, the rules for declension of surnames do not allow changing them if they are dissonant, cause inappropriate associations, or are consonant with a geographical name or a personal name. For example, such surnames as Varenik, Gordey, Donets, Gus, remain unchanged in any case, regardless of whether they belong to a man or a woman.

This article briefly discusses the main issues of "declension of surnames and personal names in the Russian literary language".

Attention is focused on the most controversial and complex cases of use. Names and surnames are considered separately.

1. Declension of surnames

1.1. The vast majority of Russian surnames have formal indicators - suffixes -ov- (-ev-), -in-, -sk-: Zadornov, Turgenev, Putin, Malinovsky, Yamskoy. Such surnames are inclined, forming two correlative systems of forms - feminine and masculine, naming female and male persons, respectively. Both systems are comparable to a single system of forms plural.

Note. All this resembles the system of adjectival forms (except for the absence of neuter forms). Since the ratio of male and female surnames is absolutely regular and has no anologies among common nouns, the following thought comes up: should Russian surnames be considered special type"generic" nouns.

1.2. Surnames with a formal indicator -sk- are declined in the feminine and masculine gender and in the plural as adjectives: Malinovsky, Malinovsky, Malinovsky ..., Dostoevsky, Malinovsky ..., Malinovsky, Malinovsky, etc.

There are relatively few Russian surnames that are declined as adjectives and do not have the indicator -sk-. These include: Good, Wild, Armored, Tolstoy, Smooth, Borovoy, Beregovoy, Lanovoy, Transverse, etc. (a list of such surnames can be found in the book Modern Russian Surnames. Authors: A. V. Suslova, A. V. Superanskaya, 1981. S. 120-122).

1.3. Surnames with formal indicators -in- and -ov- have a special declension in the masculine gender, which is not found either among common nouns or among personal names. They combine the endings of patristic adjectives and masculine second-declension nouns. The method of declension of surnames differs from the declension of possessive adjectives by the ending of the prepositional case (cf .: about Karamzin, about Griboyedov, - about mother's, about father's), from the declension of these nouns - by the ending of the instrumental case (cf .: Nikitin -th, Koltsov-th, - jug-th, island-th).

Correlative female surnames decline like possessive adjectives in the feminine form (cf. how Karenina and mother's, Rostov's and father's are inclined). The same must be said about the declension of surnames into -in and -ov in the plural (Rudins, Bazarovs are inclined like fathers, mothers).

1.4. All other male surnames that have a zero ending in the nominative case (when written, they end with a consonant letter y or soft sign) and bases on consonants, except for surnames on -ih, -ih, are declined as masculine nouns of the second declension. Such surnames have the ending -em, (-om) in the instrumental case: Gaidai, Vrubel, Herzen, Gogol, Levitan, Hemingway. Such surnames are perceived as foreign.

Correlative female surnames do not bow: with Anna Magdalena Bach, about Mary Hemingway, with Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela-Vrubel, Lyubov Dmitrievna Blok, Natalia Alexandrovna Herzen, about Zoya Gaidai.

Note. To apply this rule, you need to know the gender of the bearer of the surname. The absence of such information puts the writer in a difficult position.

The form in which the surname appears informs about the gender of the person concerned. But if the writer (author) did not have the necessary information, was careless or unsteady in applying the grammar of the Russian language, the reader receives false information.

Surnames of this type of plural are also declined as masculine nouns: he wrote to the Hemingways, Bloks, visited the Gaidai, the Herzens, the Vrubels, etc.

Note. There are special rules for using such surnames in some cases in the inflected form, in others in the inflected plural form. These rules relate less to morphology and more to syntax. They are described in some detail in D. E. Rosenthal's Handbook of Spelling and Literary Editing (§149, p. 10, pp. 191-192). According to these rules, it is recommended: with father and son Oistrakh, but with father and daughter Gilels, with Thomas and Heinrich Mann, but with Robert and Clara Schumann. This article does not cover this information in detail.

1.5. The simple rule described above for declension of surnames into consonants that do not have formal indicators -ov-, -in, is very difficult to apply for some rare surnames, for example, for those that are homonymous with those who decline in the third declension geographical names or common noun. So, in the grammatical appendix to the "Directory of Personal Names of the Peoples of the RSFSR" it is said about the difficulties that arise when it is necessary to decline such surnames as Astrakhan, Lyubov, Sadness.

The same manual says that for other surnames, only the formation of the plural is associated with difficulties (the surnames Us, Son, Gey, Poloz, Finger, etc.).

The declension of many surnames (both in the singular and in the plural) turns out to be difficult due to the ambiguity of whether it is necessary to maintain vowel fluency in them along the lines of homonymous or similar outwardly common nouns (Zhuravel or Zhuravlya - from Zhuravel, Mazurok or Mazurka - from Mazurok, Kravets or Kravets - from Kravets, etc.). Such difficulties cannot be solved by the use of rules. In such cases, a surname dictionary is needed that defines recommendations for each surname.

1.6. A separate type characterizes Russian surnames in -s (-s), which come from the genitive (or prepositional) case of plural adjectives: Black, White, Curly, Twisted, Red, Long. Given the normative nature of the Russian language, such surnames are not inclined: Chernykh's lectures, Sedykh's novel, Kruchenykh's work, etc.

Note. In non-literary (colloquial) speech, there is a desire to decline such surnames, if they belong to men, which has an impact the stronger, the closer the communication with the owner of this surname. In the no longer functioning Moscow City Pedagogical Institute. Potemkin, students there in the forties and fifties attended Chernykh's lectures, took tests and exams for Chernykh, and so on. (It just never occurred to anyone to say otherwise). If this trend had continued, surnames ending in -s, -i would not differ from the rest of the surnames in consonants, which were discussed in paragraph 13.1.4.

1.7. Sometimes, given the morphological structure of some surnames, their original form can be ambiguously assessed. This is rare, but these cases are linguistically very interesting in terms of the difficulties that can arise in their decline. There are difficulties in determining "Russian" and "non-Russian" surnames on -ov and -in; the latter include, for example, Flotov (German composer), Gutskov (German writer), Cronin (English writer), Darwin, Franklin, etc. From the point of view of morphology, “Russianness” or “non-Russianness” is determined by emphasis, or not emphasis in the surname of the formal indicator (-ov- or -in-). The presence of such an indicator shows that the instrumental case contains the ending -th, and the corresponding female surname is inclined (Fonvizin, Fonvizina), and if it is not distinguished, then the instrumental case is formed with the ending -om, and the female surname is not inclined (with Anna Virkhov, Virkhov) . Wed "homonyms": with Hannah Chaplin, Charles Spencer Chaplin and Nikolai Pavlovich Chaplin, with Vera Chaplin.

Note. Taking into account the materials of L.P. Kalakutskaya, sometimes the corresponding male and female surnames are formed morphologically inconsistently (the instrumental case by Zeitlin can be combined with the indeclinable form of Zeitlin of the woman's surname). Settlement here can only be achieved by using a special dictionary of surnames, which contains grammatical rules. Therefore, the editor must necessarily monitor morphologically contradictory forms so that they do not occur at least within the same article.

There are non-Russian (preferably German) surnames in -i: Dietrich, Argerich, Erlich, Freindlich, etc. Such "foreign" surnames, in no case, should be mistaken for Russian surnames in -i, because in Russian surnames before the base -them, there are almost never soft consonants that have hard pairs. This is due to the fact that in Russian there are very few adjectives with similar stems (i.e. such adjectives as blue; and is there a surname Sinykh).

But it happens that the final -ih in the surname is preceded by a hissing or back-palatal consonant, its belonging to the indeclinable type will be correct when correlated with the base of the adjective (for example, Walking, Smooth); if such a condition is absent, such surnames are perceived morphologically ambiguously (for example, Tovchikh, Khaskhachikh, Gritsky). Although such cases are quite rare, you should still consider this real possibility.

There is a possibility of perception of the ambiguity of surnames, the original forms of which end in iot (in the letter y) with vowels preceding them and or o. These are such surnames as Pobozhiy, Topchy, Ore, Bokiy are sometimes perceived both as having endings -y, -oy and, consequently declining as adjectives (Topchemu, Topchy, in the feminine Topchey, Topchaya) and as containing a zero ending, inclined relatively sample nouns (Topchiu, Topchia, in the feminine form Topchiy does not change). To resolve such controversial issues, you need to again refer to the dictionary of surnames.

1.8. The declension of surnames ending in vowels in the original form does not depend on whether they are male or female.

Note. The material of L.P. Kalakutskaya shows that there is a tendency to extend the ratio, which is natural for surnames to consonants, to surnames with a final a, i.e. incline male surnames without inclining female ones. Editors should do their best to eliminate this practice.

Consider surnames for vowels, based on their letter appearance.

1.9. Surnames that must be reflected in a written appeal, ending with the letter: e, e, and, s, y, u - do not decline. For example: Fourier, Goethe, Ordzhonikidze, Maigret, Rustaveli, Gandhi, Dzhusoyty, Shaw, Camus, etc.

1.10. The same rule applies to surnames that have the ending "o" or "ko", "enko". Ending in "o" - Hugo, Picasso, Caruso. Or such surnames as: Gromyko, Semashko, Stepanenko, Makarenko, i.e. mostly with Ukrainian roots. And, if in the forties and fifties of the last century declensions of such surnames could be allowed, now this is not acceptable.

1.11. The declension of surnames ending in the letter "a" has a number of differences from the previous rule. In this case, such signs matter: where the stress falls, as well as the origin of the surname. Surnames ending in a non-stressed letter “a” and having vowels “i”, “y” before it are not inclined. As well as the ending "a" shock, mostly these are surnames of French origin.

For example, vowels before "a": Galois, Delacroix, Moravia, Gulia. Or French surnames: Fermat, Dumas, Petipa, etc.

Surnames are declined if the ending "a" is after a consonant, not stressed, or stressed, in accordance with the rules of morphology. These include more often surnames of Slavic, eastern origin.

Spinoza - Spinoza - Spinoza, Petrarch, Glinka, Okudzhava, etc.; Kvasha - Kvasha - Kvasha, Mitta, etc.

There are surnames belonging to a Russian or a foreign person. In such cases, it plays a role here how the male and female surnames will be inclined. The endings "ov", "in", belonging to persons of Russian origin, are declined in the instrumental case, as "ym" - male and "oy" - female. With Nikolai Chaplin - the Russian version and Charles Chaplin - foreign, but feminine, with Vera Chaplina and Hannah Chaplin. In other words, surnames of non-Russian origin ending in "ov" and "in" are not feminine.

1.12. Surnames ending in "I" are inflected, except for the stressed ending and origin. Zola, Troyat - do not bow. Smut, Danelia, Beria, Goya - bow down, because the emphasis is not on the ending.

Not all Georgian surnames are inclined. It depends on the type of borrowing in Russian. Surnames with the ending "ia", (Danelia) - decline, at the end "ia" - do not decline, (Gulia).

1.13. The question arises in which cases the surnames are declined and in which they are not, and here everything depends on the above rules. What if it's a plural surname? There is a directory of non-standard surnames, which says that regardless of whether the surname is inclined or not, in the plural it must correspond to the original one and not be inclined. For example, in the singular - with Leonid Zoya, pass to Leonid Zoya, and in the plural - all members of the Zoya family. Although the declension of such surnames in the plural as Okudzhava, Deineka, Zozulya is not excluded. He was in the Okudzhava family or met with the Okudzhavas, Deineks, Zozuls.

At the same time, Mitta, Shulga, and other surnames ending in "a" cannot be declined in the plural. In this case, both the author and the editor must rely on their knowledge and sense of the language barrier. Contradictions that may arise with declension foreign surnames, should be avoided, at least in the same text.

2. Declension of personal names

2.1. There are no special morphological differences between personal names and common nouns. Their gender does not change (of course, Eugene and Eugenia, Alexander and Alexandra are exceptions). There are no words with a special declension among personal names - pay attention to surnames ending in -in and -ov. However, personal names also have feature- among them there are no words of the middle gender, however, the middle gender is rare in animate common nouns.

2.2. In personal names, a noun of the 3rd declension may occur. This is what distinguishes them from surnames and morphologically brings them closer to common nouns. With the help of 3 declension, you can decline names such as:

Love (About love, Love);
Giselle;
Adele;
Ruth;
Rahir;
Hagar;
Yudf;
Esther;
Shulamith.

There are also names that are sometimes inclined, sometimes not (Cecile and Cecily, Ninel and Ninel, Assol and Assoli, Gazelle and Gazelles, Aygyul and Aygyuli). Such names have a variable declension.

NB! Female surnames that end in a soft consonant, like female surnames ending in a hard consonant, cannot be declined. In Russian, such a possibility remains unrealized as the parallel change of nouns ending in a soft consonant, according to 2 different declensions, which are used to express gender differences from a grammatical point of view. In theory, such correlations are possible as Vrubel, Vrubel, Vrubel (declension of the surname of a man) - Vrubel, Vrubel (declension of the surname of a woman), lynx, lynx, lynx (declension of the name of a male animal) - lynx, lynx (declension of the name of a female animal) . However, a partial realization of this possibility can be traced in the widely known folklore Swans.

2.3 The names of women ending in a hard consonant are exclusively indeclinable and do not differ from female surnames. These names include the following:

Catherine;
Irene;
Elizabeth;
Marlene;

And many others. Such common nouns exist, but in limited numbers. Plus, they are almost non-replenishable (Freken, Fraulein, Mrs., Miss, Madam). At the same time, there is a huge number of personal names, the replenishment of which with the help of borrowing has no restrictions.

2.4. Male names that end in a soft and hard consonant decline like common nouns of the same external type - for example, Ernst, Robert, Makar, Konstantin, Igor, Amadeus, Emil. Sometimes these names are used as female ones: for example, Michel, Michel is male names, Michelle - feminine (it does not decline).

2.5. All of the above about the inclination and inclination of surnames into vowels is also relevant to personal names.

What names are not inclined? These include Rene, Colomba, Roger, Atala, Honoré, Nana, José, François, Ditte, Danko, Oze, Hugo, Pantalone, Bruno, Henri, Laszlo, Louis, Carlo, Lisey, Romeo, Betsy, Amadeo, Giovanni, Leo , Mary, Pierrot, Eteri, Givi and many others. Names such as Françoise, Jamila, Juliet, Ophelia, Suzanne, Emilia, Abdullah, Casta, Mirza and Musa may be inclined.

2.6. If necessary, it is possible to form a plural from personal names that can be inclined - Elena, Igor, Ivana. At the same time, the emerging morphological restrictions are similar to those that appear for common nouns. For example, one can cite Genitive plural of Mirza, Abdullah or Costa. To learn how the genitive plural is formed from names such as Seryozha, Valya or Petya, see the corresponding note.

3. Formation of indirect cases from some combinations of surnames and given names

The old tradition of the Russian language to use the names of famous figures in combination with the names has not been eradicated in our time: Jules Verne, Mine Reed, Conan Doyle, Romain Rolland. It is very rare to find the use of the above surnames without first names. Especially when it comes to monosyllabic ones, for example, Reed, Scott and others.

Some of us still do not know how to correctly incline such unity: Jules Verne, Walter Scott, about Robin Hood and so on. But often it is necessary to decline this unusual phrase not only in oral, but also in writing. These words can be confirmed by the following well-known example:

Show yourself like a wonderful beast,

He is now going to Petropolis /…/

With the terrible book of Gizot,

With a notebook of evil cartoons,

With a new Walter Scott novel...

(Pushkin. Count Nulin)

... and gets up

Fenimore country

and Mine-Read.

(Mayakovsky. Mexico)

In the evenings quick-eyed Chamois

Vanya and Lyalya are read by Jules Verne.

(Chukovsky. Crocodile)

Writing the name and surname with a hyphen only emphasizes the close interweaving this phrase. If in such remarks the names are not declined, then the meaning will be incomprehensible. Such a decision is even condemned in various manuals, for example: D. E. Rosenthal says: “... the novels of Jules Verne (not: Jules Verne) ...” (Decree op. C. 189. § 149, item 2) . If you follow this recommendation, then you may get the following:

The wind whistled in Vova's ear

And he took the sombrero off his head!

Waves-mountains run one after another,

Jump like maned lions.

Here with a hiss one rolled -

And Jules Verne picked up from the stern!

(Volgina T. Summer wanders along the paths. Kyiv. 1968. S. 38-39).

Naturally, such editing in poems is unacceptable. But you should not replace text that conveys a relaxed colloquial speech- Jules Verne, Mine Reed, Bret Hart, Conan Doyle and others, on a normative combination, while inclining the forms of names. The editor in such cases should be more restrained.

1. Declension of surnames

2. Declension of personal names

3. Formation of indirect cases from some combinations of surnames and given names

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