Editing Partitive case (section)

==Russian==

The [[Russian language]] usually uses the [[genitive case]] to express partialness. However, some Russian [[mass noun]]s have developed a distinct partitive case, also referred to as the "second genitive case". The partitive arose from the merger of the declensions of ''*-ŏ'' and ''*-ŭ'' stem nouns in [[Old East Slavic]], which left the former ''*-ŭ'' stem genitive suffix available for a specialized use.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ivanov|first1=V. V.|script-title=ru:Историческая грамматика русского языка|title=Istoricheskaya grammatika russkogo yazyka|date=1990|publisher=Prosveshcheniye|location=Moscow|isbn=5-09-000910-4|page=256|edition=3rd|language=ru}}</ref>

In modern Russian, use of the partitive case is often facultative. In many situations, the partitive and the genitive can be used almost synonymously: {{lang|ru|чашка ча'''ю'''}}, ''{{Transliteration|ru|cháshka chá'''yu'''}}'' (partitive) and {{lang|ru|чашка ча'''я'''}} ''{{Transliteration|ru|cháshka chá'''ya'''}}'' (genitive) both mean "a cup of tea"; {{lang|ru|много дым'''у'''}}, ''{{Transliteration|ru|mnógo dým'''u'''}}'' (partitive) and {{lang|ru|много дым'''а'''}} ''{{Transliteration|ru|mnógo dým'''a'''}}'' (genitive) both mean "lots of smoke". The partitive variant is preferred with verbs: {{lang|ru|выпить ча'''ю'''}}, ''{{Transliteration|ru|výpit' chá'''yu'''}}'', "to have a drink of tea". The genitive variant is used more frequently when the mass noun is modified by an adjective: {{lang|ru|чашка горячего ча'''я'''}} ''{{Transliteration|ru|cháshka goryáchevo chá'''ya'''}}'', "a cup of hot tea".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Rozental|first1=D. E.|script-title=ru:Говорите и пишите по-русски правильно|title=Govoritye i pishitye po-russki pravil'no|date=2007|publisher=Airis Press|location=Moscow|isbn=978-5-8112-2447-0|page=29|language=ru}}</ref>