Adjective endings

  1. In Russian we use adjectives to describe nouns. Adjectives, like nouns, have gender and number. They also agree in gender, number and case with the noun they modify. Refer to the individual cases in Russian to see the adjective endings for each case.
  2. Before you attempt to learn the endings for adjectives, you should be quite familiar with the Russian spelling rules.
  3. The ending an adjective takes will depend on the type of final consonant in its stem. Review Hard and soft stems.
  4. Adjectives answer the question какой? (what kind?), which itself is an adjective and it takes adjective endings that match the noun that it asks about: какой (m.), какая (f.), какое (n.), какие (pl.).
  5. In the masculine form, the adjective ending will also depend on whether the accent is on the stem or on the ending:
genderexampleendingreason
masculine новый-ыйhard stem
хороший-ийspelling rule 1
большой-ойaccented ending
синий-ийsoft stem
feminine новая-аяhard stem
хорошая
большая
синяя-яяsoft stem
neuter новое-оеhard stem
хорошее-ееspelling rule 3
большое-оеaccented ending
синее-ееsoft stem
plural новые-ыеhard stem
хорошие-иеspelling rule 3
большие
синие-иеsoft stem

Copyright ©. George Goce Mitrevski. mitrevski@pelister.org