In Russian, the word "книга" means "book," and it is a feminine noun. When we want to talk about who owns a book or if we don’t have one, we use the genitive case form, which is "книги."

Learning the genitive case is important because it helps us show ownership or how something is missing.

1. The Genitive Case:

• We use it to show who owns something.

  • For example: “Это книга Лены” means “This is Lena's book.”

• We can also use it to say we don’t own something.

  • Like: “У меня нет книги,” which means “I do not have the book.”

2. Noun Gender and Cases:

• "Книга" is a feminine noun.

• In Russian, nouns change based on their role in a sentence. The main types are:

  • Nominative (for the subject),
  • Accusative (for the object),
  • Genitive (for ownership or absence).

3. Basic Verb Conjugation:

• A common verb is "читать," which means "to read."

• Here’s how you change it in the present tense:

  • "я читаю" means "I read,"
  • "ты читаешь" means "you read,"
  • "он/она читает" means "he/she reads."

4. Articles:

• In Russian, there are no specific words like "a" or "the" (these are called articles).

• Instead, people understand what is meant from the context of the sentence.

5. Plural Formation:

• The singular form "книга" (book) becomes "книги" (books) when we talk about more than one.

• Changing a noun to plural can vary; often, you add -и or -ы to the end.

6. Adjective-Noun Agreement:

• Adjectives must match the nouns they describe in gender, number, and case.
  • For example, "интересная книга" means "interesting book" and matches with "книга" in the feminine form.

With these tips, you can begin to create sentences using the genitive case with "книга" correctly!