Key takeaways
- Wikipedia notes a Russian adjective usually comes before its noun and agrees with it in case, gender and number.
- The hard-stem pattern of новый uses twelve distinct written endings across six cases, three genders and the plural.
- Soft-stem adjectives such as синий swap in soft vowels: синяя, синее, синего, синие.
- After a velar or sibilant, и replaces ы (высокий), and after a sibilant the neuter ends in -ее (хорошее).
- Short forms such as нов, нова, ново, новы appear only in the nominative, in predicative use.
Russian adjective endings look like a wall of forms, but they come from one table with a few predictable spelling adjustments. Wikipedia's article on Russian declension says a Russian adjective is usually placed before its noun and agrees with it in case, gender and number, and that most adjectives follow one of a small number of regular patterns. Learn the main pattern with но́вый, "new", then the adjustments for soft stems and for certain consonants, and you can decline almost any adjective you meet.
The hard-stem table, with новый
This is the pattern Wikipedia gives as the base for most adjectives, here with новый.
| Case | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | но́вый | но́вое | но́вая | но́вые |
| Accusative | = N or G | но́вое | но́вую | = N or G |
| Genitive | но́вого | но́вого | но́вой | но́вых |
| Dative | но́вому | но́вому | но́вой | но́вым |
| Instrumental | но́вым | но́вым | но́вой | но́выми |
| Prepositional | но́вом | но́вом | но́вой | но́вых |
Three features make the table smaller than it looks.
- Masculine and neuter share everything except the nominative and accusative. From the genitive down they are identical.
- The feminine has -ой in four cases: genitive, dative, instrumental and prepositional. Wikipedia adds that the instrumental also has a stylistic variant, -ою.
- The accusative borrows. For masculine nouns and all plurals, the accusative copies the nominative for inanimate nouns and the genitive for animate ones, as nouns do. "I see a new house" uses но́вый; "I see a new friend" uses но́вого.
The animacy rule comes from the noun system, covered in Russian cases explained.
Counting the endings
How much is there to learn? Take the 24 cells of the table and list the written endings without repeats: -ый, -ое, -ая, -ые, -ую, -ого, -ой, -ых, -ом, -ому, -ым, -ыми. That gives 12 distinct endings, half the number of cells, because the accusative borrows and so many cells repeat. A quick count confirms it: 24 cells, 12 unique strings.
Two of those endings sound different from how they look. Wikipedia notes that -ого and -его are read as -ово and -ево, so нового is pronounced with a v sound, though it is always written with г.
Soft stems: синий
Some adjectives have a soft stem, and the ending vowels shift to their soft partners. Wikipedia's example is си́ний, "blue".
| Case | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | си́ний | си́нее | си́няя | си́ние |
| Accusative | = N or G | си́нее | си́нюю | = N or G |
| Genitive | си́него | си́него | си́ней | си́них |
| Dative | си́нему | си́нему | си́ней | си́ним |
| Instrumental | си́ним | си́ним | си́ней | си́ними |
| Prepositional | си́нем | си́нем | си́ней | си́них |
The pattern is the same; only the vowels change. Where новый has ы, синий has и; о becomes е; а becomes я; у becomes ю.
The spelling rules: высокий and хороший
Two rules adjust the hard pattern after particular consonants.
After a velar or sibilant, write и instead of ы. Wikipedia gives this rule for adjectives with stems ending in letters such as к, г, х, ж, ш. So высо́кий, "tall", has высо́кий, высо́кие, высо́ким where новый has ы, but it keeps the hard -ое, -ая, -ого, -ому.
After a sibilant, neuter adjectives end in -ее. Wikipedia calls this the хоро́шее rule, after хоро́ший, "good". Its table shows хорошее, хорошего, хорошему, хорошем and feminine хорошей in the oblique cases.
Stressed -ой. Some masculine adjectives end in -ой instead of -ый, and Wikipedia notes that this -ой is always stressed: большо́й, "big". The rest of большой follows the hard pattern with и after ш: больша́я, большо́е, больши́е.
Working through four phrases
Take "new" with four nouns, applying the table.
- дом (house, masculine, inanimate), nominative → но́вый дом.
- окно́ (window, neuter), genitive, "of the new window" → но́вого окна́.
- кни́га (book, feminine), accusative, "I'm reading a new book" → но́вую кни́гу.
- дома́ (houses, plural), prepositional, "in the new houses" → в но́вых дома́х.
Now swap in "good": the same four become хоро́ший дом, хоро́шего окна́, хоро́шую кни́гу and в хоро́ших дома́х. Only the cells covered by the spelling rules changed.
Short forms
Adjectives can also have a short form. Wikipedia's Russian grammar article says that in modern Russian the short form appears only in the nominative and is used when the adjective is predicative, that is, after the noun as its description: "the house is new". For новый the short forms are нов, нова́, но́во, новы́. Wikipedia adds that relational adjectives, which describe a relationship rather than a quality, are unlikely to have a short form.
Where the adjective sits in the sentence is a separate question; see Russian word order and emphasis.
Practising agreement
Regal - Learn Russian Language introduces cases, gender and agreement in stages, and its exercises explain why an answer works. It is one of our language-learning apps. Pronouns follow similar case logic, so Russian personal pronouns is a natural next step, and unstressed endings such as -ого are easier to hear after Russian vowel reduction.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
How do Russian adjectives agree with nouns?
Why is it хорошее and not хорошое?
Why is the г in нового pronounced like в?
When do you use a short-form adjective in Russian?
Sources
- Russian declension: Adjectives (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
- Russian grammar: Adjectives (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
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