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Russian/Grammar/
Adjectives
< Russian | Grammar

Adjectives in Russian are simply words

that modify nouns. The endings of
adjectives change according to the
gender, number, and case of the nouns
they modify. The rules for changing
adjectives is often a lot easier than the
rules for changing nouns themselves.
There are six cases, and so six main
ways of conjugating adjectives to fit the
noun they modify. Finally, there are the
short adjectives, detailed at the end.

Red Square - Красная Площадь -

KRA-sna-ya PLO-chshad

Nominative adjectives
The default form of an adjective is its
nominative, masculine, singular form,
and this is the form given in dictionaries.
All Russian adjectives in their default
form end in either -ый, -ий, or -ой, and
conjugating them is as simple as
removing this default ending and adding
the new one.

Hard endings

Most Russian adjectives have a hard

ending. In fact, all three endings (-ый,
-ий, and -ой) are 'hard'. The only
exception is those adjectives ending in
-ний, which we'll discuss in a moment.
For now, we only need to know that an
adjective can have four different endings
in the nominative case: masculine,
feminine, neuter, and plural.
1. When adjectives modify a masculine
noun, they use their default ending. Most
adjectives have the -ый ending,
pronounced 'ee', less common is -ий,
also pronounced 'ee', and less common
still is -ой, pronounced 'oy'. For example,
"new pencil" is новый карандаш
(pronounced NO-vee ka-ran-DASH). As a
memory aid, remember that masculine
nouns end in a consonant or й, and the
masculine ending for adjectives end in й.
2. With feminine nouns, the adjective
ends in -ая. An easy way to remember
this is to remember that a and я are what
go on the end of feminine nouns. For
example, "new car" is новая машина
(pronounced NO-vah-yah ma-SHEE-na").
3. With neuter nouns, the adjective ends
in -ое. Like with feminine nouns, you can
remember this as the two letters that go
on the end of neuter nouns, o and e. For
example, "new dress" is новое платье
(pronounced NO-vo-yeh PLAT-ye).
4. With plural nouns, regardless of
gender, the adjective replaces -ый or -ой
with -ые ('ee-ye'), or it replaces -ий with
-ие ('ee-ye'). For example, "these good
new students" is эти хорошие новые
студенты (pronounced EH-tee kha-RO-
shee-ye NO-vih-yeh stoo-DYENT-ee). As a
memory aid, think of plural as one
masculine and one neuter object. Take
the first letter from the masculine ending
(ы) and the second letter from the neuter
ending (e) and you get ые.

Soft endings

One rather rare exception to the above

rules is if the adjective ends in the so-
called 'soft' ending, -ний, such as синий
(dark blue). This doesn't conjugate like
usual -ий endings, and instead has the
following rules:

1. The ending is -ний when modifying a

masculine noun. For example, the dark
blue table - синий стол.
2. The ending is -няя ('nya-ah') when
modifying feminine nouns. For example,
the dark blue book - синяя книга
3. The ending is -нee ('nye-eh') when
modifying neuter nouns. For example, the
dark blue letter - синее письмо
4. The plural ending is -ние ('nee-ye'), as
per usual. For example, the dark blue
books - синие книги

5- and 7-letter spelling rules

When forming the nominative plural of

nouns, recall that if the stem ends in г, ж,
к, х, ч, ш, or щ, you add и, not ы. This 7-
letter spelling rule also applies to
adjectives. As a memory aid, these
letters include the non-English-looking
'hushes' (ч, ш, щ, ж) and three letters
pronounced at the back of the throat (г,
к, х). This is why adjectives whose stem
ends in one of these seven letters have
the -ий ending instead of -ый.

Four of these letters are also in the 5-

letter spelling rule. This states that, if the
stem ends in ж, ц, ч, ш, or щ, any
unstressed o in an ending is instead
written as e. For example, 'the good
letter' is written хорошее письмо (and
not хорошое письмо).

Accusative adjectives
Adjectival endings in the accusative case
are similar to noun endings, in that they
all use endings from other cases, with
the exception of feminine nouns.
Masculine adjectives take the nominative
form if their noun is inanimate, and
neuter adjectives always take their
nominative form. For example, I want a
new chair and a new letter - Я хочу
новый стул и новое письмо. However,
if the modified masculine noun is a
person or animal, then both it and its
adjectives take the genitive form. For
example, I want a new rabbit - Я хочу
нового кролика.

Feminine adjectives simply have -ую in

the accusative. As a memory aid, this is
the two letters that feminine nouns take
on in the accusative case. For example,
My Russian cat likes my new dog - Моя
русская кошка любит мою новую
собаку. One exception is adjectives with
the soft ending: they take -юю in the
accusative instead.

Plural adjectives, regardless of gender,

are also split according to animation:
inanimate plural adjectives take their
nominative form, while animate ones
take their genitive form.

Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

ый/ий/ой ые/ие
ое ую
ого/его ых/их

Genitive adjectives
The genitive case is relatively easy,
especially compared with how nouns
decline in this case. Adjectives use the
same ending for both masculine and
neuter nouns: -ого. If the adjective has
the soft ending or ends in the 5-letter rule
(ш, щ, ч, ж, ц), it ends in -его. Note that
with these genitive endings there's a new
pronunciation rule: -ого is pronounced
'oh-vo', not 'oh-goh', and -его is
pronounced 'ye-vo', not 'ye-goh'. This
unusual pronunciation is only on genitive
(and accusative) endings; мно́го,
'much/many', is pronounced 'mno-ga'.

Like masculine and neuter adjectives, the

feminine form has two endings: -ой ('oy'),
or -ей ('yay') for soft adjectives and those
ending in the 5-letter rule.
The plural form also has two endings:
-ых, or -их, if the adjective's stem ends in
one of the 7-letter-rule letters (х, г, к, ш,
щ, ч, ж).

Masculine/Neuter Feminine Plural

ого ой ых
его ей их

Examples:

My new husband has many friends - У

моего нового мужа есть много
друзе́й
Three kilograms of fresh new cheeses
- Три килогра́мма свежих новых
сыров
A kilogram of beautiful American
apples - Килогра́мм краси́вых
америка́нских я́ блок
 I arrived from my old house - Я
пришёл из моего старого дома

Instrumental adjectives
The instrumental case is used to denote
nouns which are the means by which a
verb is carried out, such as, "I am writing
with a pen" (Я пишу́ ру́чкой).

To form masculine and neuter adjectives,

the ending is -ым. If the adjective ends in
the 5-letter rule (ш, щ, ч, ж, ц) or the soft
ending (-ний), then the instrumental
ending is -им. For example, 'I wrote with
a good new pencil' - Я написал хорошим
новым карандашом.
Feminine adjectives end in -ой. For
adjectives ending in the 5-letter rule or
soft ending, the instrumental ending is
ей. These are the same as the feminine
singular endings for the genitive, dative,
and prepositional cases. For example, 'I
want a meeting with an interesting
Russian woman' - Я хочу встречу с
интересной русской женщиной.

To form the instrumental plural, all

adjectives have -ыми. Those which end
in -ий have -ими.

Masculine/Neuter Feminine Plural

ым ой ыми
им ей ими

Examples:
 I live between two new houses - Я
живу́ ме́жду двумя но́выми
дома́ми
It's under the good books - Оно́ под
хоро́шими кни́гами
I am studying Russian - Я занима́юсь
ру́сским языко́м

Dative adjectives
The dative case denotes the secondary
object of a verb. For example, 'I wrote a
letter to him' would place 'letter' in the
accusative case as it's the direct object
of the verb, while 'to him' would be the
word 'him' placed in the dative case.
Thus, it translates to Я написал письмо
ему. Adjectives in the dative case
conjugate as follows:

Masculine and neuter adjectives end in

-ому. If the adjective ends in the 5-letter
rule (ш, щ, ч, ж, ц) or the soft ending (-
ний), they end in -ему. If you already
know the prepositional form, you will see
this is prepositional form, with an у
attached. This can be a useful memory
aid, as most dative masculine and neuter
nouns end in -у.

Similarly, feminine adjectives in the

dative actually are identical to their
prepositional form (and their
instrumental and genitive forms as well):
-ой, unless the stem ends in the 5-letter
rule, or the adjective ends in the soft
ending, in which case -ей.

Plural adjectives are like plural nouns in

the dative form, in that they're the same
as their instrumental cousins, only
without the end и. This also means that
they're the same as their instrumental
singular forms. In other words, dative
plural adjectives end in -ым, unless they
end in the 7-letter rule (г, к, х, ш, щ, ж, ч),
in which case the ending is -им.

Masculine/Neuter Feminine Plural

ому ой ым
ему ей им

Examples:
 She wants to speak to your young
cousin - Она́ хо́чет поговори́ть с
ва́шей молодо́й двою́ родной
сестро́й
He walked along the new street - Он
шёл по но́вой у́лице
I gave five pounds to the nice old lady -
Я дал пять фу́нтов симпати́чной
ста́рой же́нщине

Prepositional adjectives
The final case is the prepositional case.
This is only used after four prepositions
(в, на, о(б), and при), as discussed more
thoroughly on it's dedicated page. As you
may guess by now, there is an ending for
masculine and neuter adjectives, an
ending for feminine adjectives, and an
ending for plural adjectives, and they all
have alternatives if the adjectival stem
ends in the 5- or 7- letter rule.

The ending for masculine and neuter

endings is the same as that for dative
adjectives, minus the end vowel: -ом. If
the stem ends in the 5-letter rule (ш, щ,
ч, ж, ц), or the adjective has the soft
ending -ний, the ending is -ем. For
example, 'They were talking about a good
new cinema' - Они говорили о хорошем
новом кино (note that кино, 'cinema', is
indeclinable).

Feminine adjectives have the same

ending as in the genitive, dative, and
instrumental cases: -ой, or, if the
adjective ends in the 5-letter rule or the
soft ending, -ей. For example, 'They were
in the old Russian school' - Они были в
старой русской школе.

Plural adjectives in the prepositional end

in -ых. If the stem ends in the 7-letter
rule (г, к, х, ш, щ, ж, ч) or the adjective
has the soft ending, the plural
prepositional ending is -их. For example,
'They like to live in big red houses' - Они
любят жить в больших красных
домах.

Masculine/Neuter Feminine Plural

ом ой ых
ем ей их

Examples:
 I want to live in a clean new city - Я
хочу́ жить в чи́стом но́вом го́роде
She's in the blue apartment, not the
white apartment - Она́ в си́ней
кварти́ре, не в бе́лой кварти́ре - note
the soft ending of си́ний/си́ней
Let's talk about my beautiful young
Russian wife! - Давайте говорить о
мое́й краси́вой молодо́й ру́сской
жене́!

Russian/Grammar/Prepositional case

Summary
A summary of all adjectival endings for
each case, gender, and number, can be
found here.
 Case Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

Nominative ый ий ой ое ая ые ие

Accusative ый ий ой ого его ое ую ые ие ых их

Genitive ого его ой ей ых их

Instrumental ым им ой ей ыми ими

Dative ому ему ой ей ым им

Prepositional ом ем ой ей ых их

The masculine and plural accusative

endings are split between inanimate
endings on the left, and animate endings
on the right. Most other endings come in
pairs. For singular endings, only use the
right-hand one (with an e in it) after
adjectival stems that end in the 5-letter
rule (ш, щ, ч, ж, ц). For plural endings,
only use the right-hand one (with an и)
after the 7-letter rule (г, к, х, ш, щ, ж, ч;
that is, any adjective whose default
ending is -ий). For adjectives that have
the soft ending (-ний), always use the
right-hand ending. Finally, notice that for
the latter four cases, the neuter ending is
the same as the masculine, and the
feminine endings are all the same.

Short adjectives
Usage

When an adjective describes something

permanent, fixed, or unchanging, we use
the 'long-form', which is given in the
above sections. By contrast, short
adjectives describe something transient,
fleeting, or temporary. For instance, 'I'm
happy!' could be written in Russian using
the usual, 'long-form' adjecitve: Я
счастли́вый! (for a boy) or Я
счастли́вая! (for a girl). However, since
the quality of 'being happy' might be a
temporary one (compare "I'm always
happy" with "I was happy yesterday
morning"), we can describe this state
using the short form of the adjective to
emphasise its temporary nature.
Conversational Russian prefers
constructions that use long-form
adjectives, though the short form is still
used for this important distinction.

Every adjective has both long and short

forms; which you use depends on the
finer details of what you're trying to say.
If in doubt, use the long form. The short
form is used in sentences like 'The house
is clean', rather than 'The clean house';
though both are broadly conveying the
same idea, the temporary nature of the
adjective is emphasised by being in the
short form, and by being at the end of the
sentence, just like in English.

Formation

To make the short form of any adjective,

just remove the ending. The feminine
then has the suffix -а, the neuter has -о,
and all plurals have -ы. The short form
doesn't change according to the case of
the noun it modifies, only gender and
number, making it very easy to remeber.
The masculine form is usually just the
bare stem, but if it ends in awkward
consonant clusters, we add an o or e to
smooth things out. Specifically, we add -
o- before a final -к, and -e- before a final
-н. For example, ни́зкий ('low') would
have the short form низк, but since this
is hard to pronounce, the masculine
short form is instead ни́зок.

If you have a good grasp of gender and

number, you'll find these suffixes very
easy to remember. So, the short forms of
счастли́вый is сча́стлив, сча́стливa,
сча́стливo, and сча́стливы, and to say
"I'm happy" with emphasis on the
temporary nature of this happiness, we
would say Я сча́стлив!.

Exceptions

There are two adjectives with exceptional

short forms, большо́й ('big') and
маленький ('small'), as follows:

Gender Большой Маленький

Masculine вели́к мал

Feminine велика́ мала́

Neuter велико́ мало́

Plural велики́ малы́

Some adjectives have no short form, and

tend to be those that are derived from
nouns. These have endings like -ский,
-овой, and -ной (e.g., братский). There
is also a short-form adjective, рад
('glad'), which has no long form.

Russian language · Русский язык

(view)
Lessons Introduction · Alphabet · Lesson 1 · Lesson 2 · Lesson 3 · Lesson 4 · Lesson 5
(edit)

Numbers · Cases (Nom. · Gen. · Dat. · Acc. · Inst. · Prep.) · Adjectives · Prepositions · Verbs (Aspect · Past · Future) ·
Reference
Pronouns (Personal · Possessive · Interrogative) · Cursive

Appendices Appendix · Alphabet · Internet · Cheat Sheet

See also
How the endings of adjectives for color
change according to the gender, number
and the case of the nouns that the
adjective modifies:

Nominative
Genitive
Dative
Accusative
 Instrumental
Prepositional

For an article on short-form adjectives,

see:

Master Russian - Short form

adjectives

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