Nice to meet you. The Instrumental Case of Personal Pronouns

Nice to meet you. The Instrumental Case of Personal Pronouns

What do you learn once you have learned how to say 'hello' in a new language? Most likely, 'Nice to meet you'. So even if you are an absolute beginner, probably, you have already heard this phrase:

Рад с Вáми познакóмиться ('Nice to meet you', if you are a man) / Рáда с Вáми познакóмиться ('Nice to meet you', if you are a woman).

'Рад / рáда' means '[I am] glad'. 'Познакóмиться' means 'to get yourself to know somebody or something / to get acquainted with somebody or something'. It is the infinitive with the reflexive suffix -ся in the end. You are going to learn many verbs which are like that. If you are a beginner you may find it a bit difficult to pronouns the verb познакóмиться. To learn how to do it, please, listen to the related pod-cast episode.

As you must have concluded from the title of the post the phrase 'рáд(а) с Вáми познакóмиться' contains the Instrumental Case. In this pattern the Instrumental form is used with the preposition 'c' which means with. That's super easy :-) Just one letter - 'c'!

This mini-pattern, the preposition 'c'+ Instrumental case, is super popular. Every now and then you are going to speak with somebody, go somewhere with somebody, get acquainted with somebody or do something together with somebody and it might be a good idea to be able to say it in Russian.

Below you can see the pronouns in the Instrumental case without the prepositions 'c':

я - мной, ты - тобóй, он - им, онá – ей, онó – им, мы – нáми, вы/Вы – вáми/Вáми, они́ -и́ми

Now, if we add the preposition 'c', there is gonna be some small difference in pronunciation. We will need the letter н with he, she and they, like it happened with её – у неё, егó – у негó, их – у них. And it will be as follows:

со мнóй, с тобóй, с ним, с ней, с ним, с нáми, с вáми / Вáми, с ни́ми

With 'познакóмиться' it will be like this:

познакóмиться со мнóй (get acquainted with me), познакóмиться с тобóй (get acquainted with you / singular / informal), познакóмиться с ним (get acquainted with him), познакóмиться с ней (get acquainted with her), познакóмиться с ним (get acquainted with it), познакóмиться с нáми (get acquainted with us), познакóмиться с вáми / Вáми (get acquainted with you / formal / plural), познакóмиться с ни́ми (get acquainted with them).

Here are the phrases which you can listen to and repeat if you visit the related pod-cast episode.

Он рад со мнóй познакóмиться? - Is he gad to meet me?

Рад с тобóй познакóмиться. - I am glad to meet you (informal).

Он был óчень рад с ней познакóмиться. - He was very pleased to meet her.

Онá былá рáда с ним познакóмиться. - She was very glad to meet him.

Онá рáда познакóмиться с нáми? - Is she glad to meet us?

Мы так рáды познакóмиться с Вáми. - We are so glad to meet you (formal / plural).

Я óчень рáда познакóмиться с ни́ми. - I am very glad to meet them.

One more thing, when Russians want to say 'you and me' or 'you and I', we actually often say 'we with you'. Мы с тобо́й orмы с Вáми. For example,'Мы с Вáми сегóдня хорошó порабóтали' / You and me have done great job today! :-)

Indeed, there is only Propositional case left for us :-) Soon we will complete this mini-project about the cases of Personal Pronouns.

I would like to remind you that you are very welcome to leave your feedback below this post :-)

Спаси́бо, что Вы со мнóй. Thank you for being with me!

Best wishes to you. Всегó хорóшего. Уви́димся!