No. 2,288 in Russian
кем
The Russian word "кем" is the instrumental case of "кто" and means "by whom" or "as whom."
In a sentence
Кем ты работаешь?
Who do you work as?
In this question, 'кем' is used in the instrumental case to ask about someone's profession or role.
Он стал кем-то особенным в нашей команде.
He became someone special in our team.
Here, 'кем-то' is used as an instrumental case form of 'кто-то' to indicate an unspecified important role.
Ей предложили стать кем угодно, кроме директора.
She was offered to become anyone except for the director.
In this context, 'кем угодно' is plural and instrumental, suggesting flexibility in the role to take.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “кем” in actual Russian podcasts.
Find “кем” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Russian podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into русский, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Russian books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).