The vocative: How to address people directly in Russian?

When we address someone directly in spoken Russian, we often use special forms of people’s names. For example, if someone’s name is Ваня[Vanya, short from Ivan] or Нина[Nina], we can say Вань![van] or Нин![neen] while calling their names to attract their attention.

These forms are sometimes called “the vocative case” as a tribute to a case that existed in Old Slavic and served the same purpose. What would your name sound like when a Russian person is calling it? Let’s find out!

As you probably already know, modern Russian has six casesNo definition set for casesLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum., and the vocative is not one of them. So what is the vocative case then? There are actually two different grammar features that are described by this term:

• The so-called “new vocative”: The forms of people’s names and some other nouns that are used in modern Russian to address someone directly.

• The leftovers of the historical vocative case that existed in the Old Slavic language and disappeared from spoken Russian by the XVI (16th) century. In modern Russian, you will mostly only find these forms in some set phrases, which are mostly religious in meaning.

Let’s now look at each of these “vocatives” closely.

The new vocative is used in spoken Russian to address someone directly or to attract a person’s attention. It is very colloquial in nature, mostly used among family members and friends. In more formal settings, for example in a business or academic environment, the nominative case is used instead.

Russian lost its vocative case relatively early on in its history, as it started getting mixed with the nominative case as early as the XIth century. While some other Slavic languagesNo definition set for Slavic languagesLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. still have it, modern Russian has preserved just a few examples of the old vocative case, mainly thanks to the fact that the Russian Orthodox church has been using the Church Slavonic language in its texts and services.

The list of idiomatic phrases with nouns in the old vocative case includes mostly exclamations / expressions of surprise or fear:

• Бог[bokh]( “god”) → Боже from:

  • Боже мой

  • Боже упаси

• Господь[gasPOT](Lord) → Господи from:

  Господи Иисусе

• Отче наш[OTche nash](Our Father) → The name (and the beginning) of “Lord’s prayer” in Russian.

• Чего тебе надобно, старче?[chiVO tiBYE NAdabna STARche](What do you want, old man?) → a famous line from a fairytale by Pushkin, used ironically as a question.

People’s names and some other nouns have special forms called “the new vocative.” These forms are used to call someone by their name in conversational Russian. Names that end in -а/-я have zero ending in the new vocative case, while those that end in a consonant stay the same as in the nominative.

Also, there are the remains of the old vocative case that you can find in some idiomatic expressions in Russian.

Let’s see if you can address a person in Russian by name correctly now! Try out the activities below!