How to use о (about) with the prepositional case in Russian?

In Russian, we use the prepositional case after the word о (transcribed a, meaning “about”). This means that we often use the prepositional case for the topic of a conversation, a book, a feeling, or a thought, or when asking questions about these things.

In this post, we’ll look more closely at the preposition о (transcribed a , meaning “about”) and some of the common cases where you’ll need to use it before the prepositional case in Russian. Let’s have a look!

The preposition о (transcribed a, meaning “about”) exists in Russian in three forms, all with the same meaning and grammar: о (transcribed a), об (transcribed ab), and обо (transcribed aba).

1. Обо (transcribed aba) is used in a few particular phrases:

   • It is always used in the phrase обо мне (transcribed aba MNYE, meaning “about me”)

   • It can be used instead of о in the phrases обо всех (transcribed aba FSYEKH, meaning “about everyone”), обо всей (transcribed aba FSYEY, meaning “about her”) and обо всём (transcribed aba FSYOM, meaning “about everything”).

2. Об (transcribed ab) is used before words starting with the vowel letters а (transcribed a), о (transcribed o), э (e) (transcribed e), и (transcribed ee), у (transcribed oo), for example:

   • об Анне

     Transcription: ab Anye

     Translation: about Anna
   • об игрушках

     Transcription: ab ygROOSHkakh

     Translation: about toys
   • об отпуске

     Transcription: ab OTpooskye

     Translation: about vacation

3. О (transcribed a) is used in all other instances, that is before all other words words starting with all consonants and consonant clusters, and before words starting with vowel letters е (transcribed ye), ё (transcribed yo), ю (yu) (transcribed yu), я (transcribed ya), because they are pronounced with a [y] sound at the beginning of words, which is a consonant, for example:

   • о животных

     Transcription: a zhiVOTnykh

     Translation: about animals
   • о счастье

     Transcription: a SHCHASTyi

     Translation: about happiness
   • о яблоках

     Transcription: a YABlakakh

     Translation: about apples

Notice that all three versions of o (transcribed a, meaning “about”) are unstressed, so the stress will fall on the stressed syllable of the word that follows it.

In Russian, we use the prepositional case after the preposition after o (transcribed a, meaning “about”) when it is used to express the topic of a book, film, speech, feelings, thoughts, and similar. This means that we also use the prepositional case to ask and answer questions like:

Pronouns take the following forms in the prepositional case after o:

A noun that follows o (transcribed a, meaning “about”) will be in the prepositional case, which means that they will take the endings -e / -и (singular) or -ax / -яx (plural). For example:

For the full details on how to form the prepositional case of nouns, adjectives, and numerals in Russian, check out our post on the Russian prepositional case or download the reference sheets at the bottom of this page!

The preposition o (transcribed a, meaning “about”) is used after many verbs meaning speaking, thinking, or feeling in Russian. Some of the most popular ones are listed below.

Some Russian nouns are also commonly followed by the preposition о (transcribed a, meaning “about”) + a topic in the prepositional case. Some common ones are listed below.

For example:

In this post we have looked at how to use the prepositional case in Russian after o (transcribed o, meaning “about”) to express the topic of a work of art, or the object of thought, speech, or feelings. You now know:

• The endings that nouns, adjectives, and numerals take in prepositional after о

• The forms of personal and interrogative pronouns in prepositional after о

• Verbs and nouns most frequently used with о + prepositional

Ready for some practice? Download the activities and reference sheets below! Happy learning!