Use of nominative case

The nominative case is used for the subject of a sentence. i.e. Иван любит рыбачить. (Иван is nominative.)

How to Decline

The nominative singular is the dictionary form of a noun, so there is no declension. In the plural, the noun has four possible endings:

• ы : Nouns ending in consonant (add  ы ), and nouns ending in  а  (replace with  ы )  

• и : Nouns ending in  й ,  ь , or  я , replace with  и  (and, due to spelling rule, nouns ending in  а  where the previous consonant is  г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ )  

• а : Neuter nouns ending in  о , replace with  а

• я : Neuter nouns ending in  е , replace with  я