A. J. Lohwater's Russian-English Dictionary of the Mathematical Sciences

in a particular case which expresses a specific meaning. In English, the word order subject-verb-object is the standard, while in Russian this order is not mandatory. Because the subject of a sentence is in the nominative case, the subject may appear at the end of the sentence; the reader can always identify the subject by its case. Similarly, the direct object is in the accusative case, while the indirect object appears in the dative case; these objects may appear anywhere in the sentence because the reader can always identify them by their cases. However, the word order subject-verb-object appears frequently. There are constraints, of course, in the ordering of components within a sentence. For instance, a preposition is not separated from its object, nor is a noun separated from its adjective in a noun phrase. Thus, noun phrases and prepositional phrases are generally placed as units within a sentence.

Mathematical symbols are of course not inflected, so that, strictly speaking, Russian cannot say 'the number of edges of Q' but has to say число граней конуса Q ('the number of edges of the cone Q'). The extra word is not needed in English, and consequently a translation will read better if the extra конуса is omitted. However, some Russian authors now disregard the rule, apparently when 'the syntax is clear from the context,' and write число граней Q to mean 'the number of edges of Q,' where the translator has to insert the 'of' to prevent the reader from thinking that the edges are what is denoted by Q.

A further very common ambiguity arises when an author wants to describe an object and give it a name. For example, if we have a sequence of increasing continuous functions and want to name it S, we would be likely to write 'a sequence S of increasing continuous functions.' Russian prefers to put the descriptive phrase first: последовательность возрастающих непрерывных функций S. A reader who is not aware of this construction is quite likely to translate the phrase as 'a sequence of increasing continuous functions S,' and give the impression that the functions are called S, whereas the author's intention was to call the sequence itself S.  

B. Nominative Endings of Nouns

In general, masculine nouns end in a consonant with or without a soft sign, feminine nouns in the vowels -а, -я, and -ь, and neuter nouns in the vowels -о, -е. However, a more complete listing is given below. Note that the nouns presented here are in the nominative case, which is the case in which they are typically presented in the dictionary. The endings for each of the other cases are presented later.

1. Masculine nouns may end in a consonant, with or without a -ь, -й.

a. Consonant.

интеграл, ранг, выигрыш

b. Consonant plus -ь.

делитель

c. -й: случай, край  

2. Feminine nouns may end in -а, -я, -ия, -ь.

a. -а: сторона, задача

b. -я: потеря

c. -ия: функция

d. -ь: часть, приводимость, вещь  

3. Neuter nouns may end in -о, -е, -ие, -мя.

a. -о: место, множество

b. -e: поле, море

c. -ие: отображение

d. -мя: время, имя  

4. The plural endings for masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns in the nominative are as follows:

a. Masculine and feminine plural: -ы, -и, -а

интегралы, случаи, профессора, края (m.)

стороны, задачи (f.)

b. Neuter plural: -а, -я

множества, поля, отображения  

C. Case Endings of Nouns

The endings given above in part B are those of the nominative case. Each of the other five cases exhibits its own set of endings for singular and plural. For nouns derived from adjectives, refer to the section on the adjective for a complete list of endings.

1. Genitive case.

a. Masculine nouns have the following endings:

i. Singular: -а, -я

случай (nom. sing.), случая (gen. sing.)

интеграл (nom. sing.), интеграла (gen. sing.)

ii. Plural: -ов, -ев, -ей

ранг (nom. sing.), рангов (gen. pl.)

случай (nom. sing.), случаев (gen. pl.)

делитель (nom. sing.), делителей (gen. pl.)

b. Feminine nouns have the following endings:

i. Singular: -ы, -и

перестановка (nom. sing.), перестановки (gen. sing.)

сторона (nom. sing.), стороны (gen. sing.)

задача (nom. sing.), задачи (gen. sing.)

потеря (nom. sing.), потери (gen. sing.)

ii. Plural: -Ш, -ь, -и, - ей ¹

сторона (nom. sing.), сторон_ (gen. pl.)

задача (nom. sing.), задач_ (gen. pl.)

перестановка (nom. sing.), перестановок_ (gen. pl.) ²

потеря (nom. sing.), потерь (gen. pl.)

часть (nom. sing.), частей (gen. pl.)

функция (nom. sing.), функций (gen. pl.)

c. Neuter nouns have the following endings:

i. Singular: -а, -я

место (nom. sing.), места (gen. sing.)

отображение (nom. sing.), отображения (gen. sing.)