Learn more about grammatical gender in Russian
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Intro |
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| Michael: Do adjectives have gender in Russian? |
| Saodat: And does noun gender influence adjectives? |
| Michael: At RussianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following scenario: Mark Lee and Emiliya Estis are walking past a car salon. Mark Lee says, |
| "I want a new car." |
| Mark Lee: Я хочу новую машину. (Ya khochu novuyu mashinu.) |
| Dialogue |
| Mark Lee: Я хочу новую машину. (Ya khochu novuyu mashinu.) |
| Emilia Estis: Я тоже. Хочу красную машину. (Ya tozhe. Khochu krasnuyu mashinu.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mark Lee: Я хочу новую машину. (Ya khochu novuyu mashinu.) |
| Michael: "I want a new car." b |
| Emilia Estis: Я тоже. Хочу красную машину. (Ya tozhe. Khochu krasnuyu mashinu.) |
| Michael: "Me too. I want a red car." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Adjectives are words that modify nouns. Also known as "describing words," they give readers more information about a noun's description or specification. In Russian, adjectives work a bit differently than in English. For one, they have to always agree with the gender, case, and number of the noun they are modifying. Why don't we use the example from our dialogue to better understand this? In the conversation, Mark Lee says, "I want a new car." |
| Saodat: Я хочу новую машину. (Ya khochu novuyu mashinu.) |
| Michael: The adjective "new" or |
| Saodat: новую (novuyu) |
| Michael: agrees with the noun "car" |
| Saodat: машину (mashinu) |
| Michael: which is feminine in form. In this case, we changed the ending of the adjective for "new" |
| Saodat: новый (novyy) |
| Michael: from |
| Saodat: ый |
| Michael: to |
| Saodat: ую (uyu) |
| Michael: Now, this rule is applicable when the sentence is in the accusative case. That being said, the endings of Russian adjectives change depending on the grammatical case. Why don't we focus on the default form of Russian adjectives, which is the nominative singular? For masculine adjectives, the most common ending is |
| Saodat: -ый (yy) |
| Michael: such as in the word |
| Saodat: красивый (krasivyy) |
| Michael: or "beautiful." This is followed by the ending |
| Saodat: -ий (iy) |
| Michael: which is used in words like |
| Saodat: хороший (khoroshiy) |
| Michael: or "good." We only use this ending after the letters |
| Saodat: Г, К, Х, Ц, Ч, Ш, and Щ. |
| Michael: Finally, we have the ending |
| Saodat: -ой (oy) |
| Michael: which is used when the ending of the word is stressed, such as in the word |
| Saodat: молодой (molodoy) |
| Michael: which means "young." Now, for feminine endings, we have the ending |
| Saodat: -ая (aya) |
| Michael: for words like |
| Saodat: умная (umnaya) |
| Michael: or "smart." |
| Michael: For adjectives that end in |
| Saodat: -ний (niy), |
| Michael: we use the ending |
| Saodat: -няя |
| Michael: For instance, the word |
| Saodat: синий (siniy) |
| Michael: or "dark blue" becomes |
| Saodat: синяя (sinyaya) |
| Michael: in the feminine form. Finally, for neuter adjectives, we use the ending |
| Saodat: -ое (oye) |
| Michael: such as in the word |
| Saodat: бопьшóе (bol'shoye) |
| Michael: or "great." And, this time, adjectives that end in |
| Saodat: -ний (niy) |
| Michael: take the ending |
| Saodat: нее (neye) |
| Michael: For instance, the word |
| Saodat: синий (siniy) |
| Michael: or "dark blue," becomes |
| Saodat: синее (sineye) |
| Michael: These are some of the most common general rules on how Russian adjectives change their endings depending on the gender of the noun they are describing. There are other possibilities and exceptions, but, in this lesson, we're focusing on the most common ones. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you've learned that adjectives in Russian change their endings depending on the gender of the noun they are describing, whether it's masculine, feminine, or neuter. |
| Now, let's look at some examples. Our first example is: |
| Saodat: У тебя есть умный мальчик. (U tebya yest' umnyy mal'chik.) |
| Michael: "You have a smart boy." Here, the adjective "smart" or |
| Saodat: умный (umnyy) |
| Michael: is in the masculine form, as the noun "boy" or |
| Saodat: мальчик (mal'chik) |
| Michael: describes is also in the masculine form. Here's another example: |
| Saodat: Это очень маленькая дверь. (Eto ochen' malen'kaya dver'.) |
| Michael: "This is a very small door." This time, the adjective "small" or |
| Saodat: маленькая (malen'kaya) |
| Michael: is in the feminine form, and agrees with the noun "door" or |
| Saodat: дверь (dver'), |
| Michael: which is also in the feminine form. And, for our final example, we have |
| Saodat: Купила красивое платье. (Kupila krasivoye plat'ye.) |
| Michael: "I bought a beautiful dress." This time, the noun "dress" or |
| Saodat: платье (plat'ye) |
| Michael: is in neuter form, which is why we used the neuter ending for the adjective "beautiful," and therefore we have |
| Saodat: красивое (krasivoye) |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: Russian adjectives are either "hard" or "soft." This only means that they either have hard endings or soft endings. Most Russian adjectives have hard endings, and even the three masculine endings |
| Saodat: -ый (yy), -ий (iy), and -ой (oy) |
| Michael: are "hard." Meanwhile, adjectives are "soft" if they end in |
| Saodat: -ний (niy) |
| Michael: Adjectives with soft endings always have a stress on the stem, such as in the word |
| Saodat: синий (siniy) |
| Michae: or "dark blue." |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: Adjectives in Russian may also be singular or plural, depending on the noun they describe. Plural form is the same for all genders. |
| After letters: |
| Saodat: к (k), г (g), х (kh) |
| Michael: and hissing sounds |
| Saodat: ж (zh), ш (sh), ч (ch), щ (shch), Ч (ch), Ш (sh), and Щ (shch). |
| Michael: the ending change to |
| Saodat: ие (iye). |
| Michael: For example: |
| Saodat: большой (bol'shoy) - большие (bol'shiye) |
| гибкий (gibkiy) - гибкие (gibkiye) |
| Michael: In other cases, the ending will be |
| Saodat: -ые (yye): |
| больной (bol'noy) - больные (bol'nyye) |
| красивый (krasivyy) - красивые (krasivyye) |
| Michael: If the adjective in its singular masculine form (dictionary form) ends in |
| Saodat: -ий (iy), |
| Michael: the plural form will always end in |
| Saodat: -ие (iye): |
| синий (siniy) - синие (siniye) |
| Michael: If it ends in |
| Saodat: -ый (yy), |
| Michael: the plural form will end in |
| Saodat: -ые (yye): |
| красный (krasnyy) - красные (krasnyye). |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Saodat: Пока! (Poka!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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