Грамматика русского языка. Часть 6. Падежи. Глава 4. Родительный падеж. Russian Grammar. Part 6. Cases. Unit 4. The Genitive Case.

The genitive case is the Russian way of saying “of”, so it indicates possession and is also used when talking about quantities.
The principal meaning of the genitive case is of, but it is also used with quantities (e.g. a lot, a bottle, not any, and after the numerals 2,3 and 4):

Это паспорт студента.	It is the passport of the student ( the student's passport ).
Здесь нет телефона.	Here there is no (not any) telephone.

There are two possible endings for the genitive singular of masculine nouns: either a or я.

To a consonant, add a:	лимонад - лимонада
Remove й,then add я:	Сергей - Сергея
Remove ь, then add я:	Игорь - Игоря
Вот бутылка лимонада.	Here is a bottle of lemonade.
Где пиджак Сергея?	Where is Sergei's jacket?
Сергей - брат Игоря.	Sergei is lgor's brother.

There are two possible endings for the genitive singular of feminine nouns: either ы or и.

Remove a, add ы:	вода - воды
Remove я, add и:	Россия - России
Remove ь, add и:	свекровь - свекрови
Дайте, пожалуйста, бутылку воды.	Give me a bottle of water, please.
Москва - столица России.	Moscow is the capital of Russia.

Remember: never write ы after г, к, x, ж, ч, ш, щ (e.g. кошка - кошки of the cat).
NB мать and дочь have irregular genitive singular forms: матери and дочери.
There are two possible endings for the genitive singular of neuier nouns: either а or я.

Remove o, add a:	место - места
Remove e, add я:	здание - здания поле – поля

Neuter words which end in мя have the irregular ending мени:

время – времени, имя – имени.

У меня нет времени!

I have no (not any) time!

The genitive plural has different endings for each gender. You need this case if you want to say, for example, “a blg gtoup of tourists”.
There are three endings for the genitive plurat of masculine nouns: oв, eв, eй.
NB If a masculine word ends in ж, ч, ш, щ, add eй, not oв: e.g. нож - ножей.

Nominative singular	Translation	Genitive plural
турист	tourist	туристов
трамвай	tram	трамваев
портфель	briefcase	портфелей

There are four endings for the genitive plural of feminine nouns: remove a and add nothing, or remove я or ь, and add ь, й, or eй.

Nominative singular	Translation	Genitive plural
школа	school	школ
неделя	week	недель
станция	station	станций
дверь	door	дверей

NB If the feminine word ends in a and when you remove it you are left with a consonant “cluster” (i.e. more than one), it is sometimes necessary to insert either o, ё or e (e if the “cluster” you are left with is жк, чк, шк). E.g.:

Nominative singular	Translation	Genitive plural
марка	stamp	марок

There are two endings for the genitive plural of neuter nouns: if the word ends in o remove it otherwise add й:

Nominative singular	Translation	Genitive plural
место	place	мест
поле	field	полей
здание	building	зданий

NB If the neuter word ends in o and when you remove it you are left with a consonant “cluster”, it is sometimes necessary to insert either o or e. Two very common examples are oкно (window) - окон and письмо (letter) + писем (notice that here the e replaces ь).