The dative case expresses the idea of addressee. In English, it is used the preposition "to" for expressing this idea.
Я дал это тебе. - I gave it to you.
See the table with endings of nouns in cases
here.In Russian, we also use the dative case whenever we talk about age. So basically we say "it is 33 years to me" (мне 33 года).
The word “years” changes depending on the number of years. After five, age is measured in “summers”.
- 1 год
- 2, 3, 4 года
- 5 – 20 лет
Note that after twenty the form of the word "years" (год, года, лет) depends on the last number.
- Мне 21 год (I'm 21 years old)
- Тебе 24 года (You are 24 years old)
- Ей 25 лет (She is 25 years old)
If you need to name a person, you should use the dative case for nouns: