Thanks again!

Говорить- to talk Рассказывать- to be telling (a story) I hope that helps!

It's because of the word "po" before it

Знакомым is either: 1. the dative plural form of the noun знакомый (masculine) /знакомая (feminine), which means acquaintance. Знакомые is therefore acquaintances. In the dative, acquaintances will be знакомым. For example, я это показал своим знакомым. I showed this to my acquaintances. 2. the dative plural form of the adjective знакомый (something like "known" or "acquainted with" or "familiar"). For example, oн это сказал своим знакомым врачам. He said that to his doctors (this means that the "he" is acquainted with the doctors). Знакомо is a particular form of the adjective, it still denotes the same, however you don't need to decline it. Basically, another way of saying знакомое место is это место мне знакомо.

because after Г,К,Х,Ж,Ш,Ч,Щ you cant put Ы, but if you say ручкИ its gonna be or nominative plural or genitive sing, and if you say дай мне водЫ usually it means a bottle of water or a glass of water, so it will be genitive case as posession, but usually we just skip this part in conversation as glass or bottle because its obvious

Дай мне воду is also correct, and this means "give me the water", i.e you're referring to a specific bottle/cup/glass of water. If you want to be more general, you can use the genitive case (this can also be referred to as the old partitive case), and say "дай мне воды" = "give me some water". Since ручка is discrete, i.e you can count pens, but you can't count water, you can only say "дай мне ручку" and nothing else. Well, apart from "дай мнe ручки" which is the plural (if you're talking about several pens).

Direct object is "i like YOU", when the object is directed to you, while indirect object is when it's affected by the action, but indirectly. I bought a cake for you- where is direct and indirect objects? cake- direct (I bought it) you- indirect (I didn't buy you, but you're still affected) Hope that makes sense.

I think I can answer your question partially. You are right that in this case "our city" is indeed the direct object. I(subject) miss(verb) our city(dir object). The reason why it's in dative is because of the "по". I do not know why whenever there is a "по" a dative follows, but if there is, even if the noun is the direct object, it should still be dative. Why the "по" is there is probably related to the origin of the phrase. I am not a Russian native speaker but a native speaker of another Slavic language - Bulgarian, which is a descendant of Old Church Slavonic, which used to be the literary language of medieval Russia. In Bulgarian скучая (скучаю in Russian, it has a slightly different ending) means to be bored. So probably some time ago what now is used as "miss" was a phrase using the verb "to be bored", and the "по" which can have multiple meanings, in Bulgarian it mainly means "along something". I guess some time before in Russia it made sense to say "я *скучаю по* тебе" "I am bored along you" and to mean "I miss you" instead of "i am bored along you". To summarize: whenever there is a "по", case is dative. Why does скучать need "по"? Because it (I guess) used to be a phrase, and the word "скучать" without "по" meant bored so it couldn't be used alone. Sources: скучать - origin: lexicography.online/etymology/%D1%81/%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%81%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8C (under Этимология) In case you do not believe me about город being the direct object, you can just replace the verb. I (verb) the city I (love) the city - Я люблю город. //"город" is in the accusative case. It's ending doesn't change because its masculine inanimate. I (hate) the city - Я ненавижу город. //accusative I (teach) the city - Я учу город. //accusative I (miss) the city - Я скучаю по город*у* //dative only because of "по", otherwise its still the direct object like before, and had the "по" rule not existed, the case would have been accusative.

@@error1308 (writing in Bulgarian): Това обяснение е много добре!

@@error1308 That's a really good explanation. As a native English speaker, it caught my ear when I heard that "miss our city" used an indirect object, because you're right, it is indeed a direct object. But I speak Polish and with certain prepositions, AS WELL as certain verbs, even if it's followed by a direct object, the noun will be declined as Dative (or genitive? I learned Polish, in Polish, so I confuse the English words, but the concept is the same). It's interesting to see where the history comes from, at least with this one verb, because you wonder why is it using Dative when it's a direct object? And the teachers would just say, that's just how it is. Memorize these verbs as needing celownik/dative to come after. But I love etymology and linguistics in general. Thanks!

In English if you said "I miss our city", "our city" would be a direct object. It's just different in Russian. To miss something is not handled the same way. In Russian it's an indirect object and therefore the dative case. In English it would be a direct object. Just a difference between the languages that you have to learn. But in Russian you have the "по" preposition which in English would be a giveaway that it's an indirect object.

Your a God! I do enjoy my Russian practice every victory no matter how small is indescribable fantastic. Cheers

stu281 I am afraid to agree with you. Dative case is probably the most illogical case of all in the Russian language. I understand its function as to " giving or adressing" but it has more functions which i do not understand why they go with the Dative case.

Спасибо вам спасибо вам I bought a grammar book you have to be a hero of the Russian federation just to pick it up.

stu281 which one did you buy? in approximately three weeks i am taking my first Russian exams for the A2 level degree..Since you have been studying Russian over 5 years you are probably around B1-B2 level

Hi Maria the book is Forbes Russian grammar I think its ok. I have been learning on my own but with very little practice in speaking. I have 3 Russian friends who are very forgiving. I read better than I speak. Truthfully I'm nowhere near any Russian exam. But I would love to be. But we battle on. Look on amazon but read the reviews. Keep going every victory no matter how small is a awesome feeling. Keep at it