Posted on February 7th, 2013

Hey, guys!

In the previous lesson you learned how to form the diminutive nouns in Russian and today we will talk about the Russian adjectives in the Nominative Case.

Adjectives in Russian always agree in gender, number and case with the nouns they modify. For example:

Симпатичная девочка

As you can see adjective “cимпатичная” agrees with “девочка”. “девочка” is a noun, singular, feminine in the nominative case, and “cимпатичная” is an adjective that is also singular, feminine in the nominative case.

Now let’s talk about the masculine adjectives in a little more detail.

Masculine Adjectives

Masculine adjectives modify masculine singular nouns. All masculine nouns end in –ый. A couple of examples:

Симпатичный парень
Шоколадный торт

There are exceptions, of course.

1. To follow the 7 letter spelling rule, the ending changes to –ий. I’ve already mentioned this rule in my previous lesson – the Plural of the Russian Nouns, but there it is one more time – 7 letter spelling rule:
Never ever write letter – ы after the letters г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ. These letters will always be followed by –и.

Русский язык
Хороший человек

2. “Naturally” soft adjectives always take ending –ий:
Синий пиджак
Летний дождь

3. Adjectives that stressed on the last syllable end with –ой:
Большой дом
Крутой поворот

Neuter Adjectives

Neuter adjectives modify neuter singular nouns. Neuter adjectives end in –oe:

Симпатичное платье
Шоколадное мороженое

There are two types of exceptions from this rule:

1. The adjectives that follow 5-letter spelling rule, end with –ее. Here is the 5 letter spelling rule:
ш, щ, ж, ч, ц are followed by a stressed –o, or –e. Do not write an unstressed –o after these consonants

For example:
Большое одолжение
Хорошее настроение

2. The adjectives that are “naturally” soft, for example:
Синее пальто
Летнее платье

Feminine Adjectives

Feminine adjectives modify feminine singular nouns. Feminine adjectives end in –ая:

Симпатичная девушка
Шоколадная конфета

The only exception is the adjectives that are “naturally” soft that end in -яя:
Синяя краска
Летняя одежда

Plural adjectives

Plural adjectives modify plural nouns of any gender. Plural adjectives end in –ые

Симпатичные девушки
Шоколадные конфеты

1. To follow the 7 letter spelling rule, the ending changes to –ие:
Русские сувениры
Хорошие люди

2. Naturally soft adjectives take ending –ие
Синие пальто
Летние дни

And one more thing: adjectives denoting nationality are not capitalized, for example:
русский язык
американское посольство

A quick exercise: make the feminine, neuter and plural out of the masculine adjective красивый and post your answer in the comment area below.

This is all for today!

Have fun learning Russian!  

Viktoria.

Related Posts:

• Video: First Conjugation Verbs Завтракать, Обедать, Ужинать.
• Grammar Video: Preposition “Ha” in the Prepositional Case
• Video: How to Form Past Tense in Russian
• Russian Verb “Любить” (Love) and How to Say “I Love You” in Russian
• Video: Second Conjugation Verbs in Russian

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