Prepositions Governing the Accusative Case

Let us begin our review of the prepositions governing the accusative case by simply checking out all
twelve of them and their general meanings.
Accusative Prepositions
+Acc (in)to +Acc about
+Acc (on)to +Acc about
+Acc [to] behind +Acc against
+Acc [to] under +Acc through
+Acc up to +Acc through, across
Now let's take a closer look at each of them and see how they work in sentences.
The Accusative with Verbs of Motion
The accusative case is associated with the direction of a motion, so the most prominent prepositions
which demand the accusative case are those prepositions used with verbs of motion to indicate the
direction of the motion. Four Russian prepositions govern the accusative case to indicate motion toward a
place and either the prepositional or instrumental case to indicate presence at that place.
Accusative with Motion Verbs
? ? ?
+Acc +Prep +Gen
'(in)to' 'in, at' '(out) from'
+Acc +Prep +Gen
'(on)to' 'on, at' (down) from
+Acc +Inst -+Gen
[to] 'behind' 'behind' 'from behind'
+Acc +Inst -+Gen
[to] 'under' 'under' 'from under'
To indicate the presence of an object at a place, use these prepositions with the prepositional or
instrumental cases. Many of these prepositions are used in time expressions as well. +Acc can also
mean "for", the antonym of "against (something)".
+Acc has three minor uses aside from indicating direction 'under'.
a. It can mean "designated for" when used with a verb of motion:
"that barn is earmarked for hay".
b. +Acc can also refer to the nature of something artificial or fake:
"artificial walnut furniture".
c. Finally, it may refer to an approximate time: "arrive near evening".
Other Prepositions Governing the Accusative
1. +Acc and +Acc mean "about", but in different senses. +Acc means "about" in the same sense as
+ Prep.
.
.
Vanya talks about Natasha all the time
2. +Acc is not quite so simple. The most colloquial way of indicating that a number is approximate in
Russian is to reverse the number and the noun that it quantifies, for example,
 . .
There were forty people there. There were about forty people there.
. .
Five students came. About 5 students came.
This creates a problem, though: how does one say "about one", since Russians do not use the number
"one" () to indicate one thing normally. would usually be taken to mean "a certain
week" rather than "one week". means the same thing. To say "about one" in Russian you
use the preposition +Acc, which otherwise indicates approximate number or size:
. She is like her sister in size.
. He spent about a week with us.
a turnip the size of a basketball.
Tom (the size of a) Thumb
3. +Acc means "up to" in the sense indicating the extent of an object's involvement measured against
some other object. Here are some examples.
. She stood in water up to her waist.
. I'm up to my neck in work.
+Acc is also used in the distributive sense of +Dat when the noun refers to more than one object:
/ "Dad gave the kids two apples/500 rubles
apiece".
4. +Acc means "against" in the sense of coming in physical contact with another object.
. She hit her head against the wall.
. The waves beat against the shore.
. He was leaning against the wall.
5. +Acc indicates the object "through" which another passes.
. The moon glowed dimly through the fog.
He always looks through his
!
fingers (the other way) at that!
Laughter through tears
6. + Acc has two major functions. The first is to indicate the sense of "through" synonymous with
+Acc, which Russians also use to indicate the path "across" something. In this latter sense it is
omissible if accompanying a verb with the synonymous prefix - "across".
- . They somehow managed to get through the woods.
. I quickly crossed the street.
. I quickly crossed the street.
+Acc is also used in time expressions to indicate the duration of time before the beginning of an
action.