In Russian, to show who owns something or how things are connected, you use a special form called the genitive case. Instead of using an apostrophe S like in English, you change the ending of the noun and place it after the item. This lets you talk about someone's house, a student's desk, or the centre of a city.

To express possession, the thing possessed comes first, followed by the person who owns it. For masculine nouns ending in a hard consonant, add the vowel A to put the owner in the genitive case. For example, брат becomes брата, and студент becomes студента. 'Дом брата' means 'the brother's house', and 'стол студента' means 'the student's table'.

You use the exact same pattern to show attribution or parts of things. For example, город, meaning city, becomes города. 'Центр города' means 'the centre of the city'. Similarly, стол, meaning table, becomes стола, so 'центр стола' means 'the centre of the table'. For personal names, Антон becomes Антона, as in 'Это комната Антона', meaning 'This is Anton's room'.