Best fonts for printing/viewing this page
There are three nouns currently in common use in Russian that have irregular instrumental plurals. They are:
Nominative plural | Instrumental plural | |
People | лю́ди | людьми́ |
Children | де́ти | детьми́ |
Horses | ло́шади | лошадьми́ |
You will also find the instrumental plural лошадя́ми. Gradually that form will become the dominant form as the language continues to simplify.
Occasionally you will also find irregular instrumental plurals матерьми́ and дочерьми́, but those are generally considered antiquated.
Rev. 3:27 AM 2/23/2012