Lesson 8. Adjectives and Adverbs

Russian adjectives change their ending depending on the case, gender and number of the nouns they relate to. Dictionary form of adjectives is masculine singular in nominative case:

good – хороший

kind – добрый

Do you remember добрый день and доброе утро from Lesson 1? These phrases literally mean kind day and kind morning.

The ending of this adjective changes because the noun день is masculine and the endings of masculine nouns in singular form are -ый, -ой for hard stems and -ий for soft stems (read about Hard and Soft Stems in Grammar section):

сильный – strong

синий – blue

большой – big

Example:

сильный ветер – strong wind

The word morning is neutral, and the endings of neutral adjectives are -ое and -ее:

дорогое вино – expensive wine

горячее блюдо – hot dish

сильное течение – heavy current

The endings of feminine adjectives are -ая, -яя:

красивая бабочка – beautiful butterfly

старая мебель – old furniture

Синяя Борода – Bluebeard

Plural form of Russian adjectives has the following endings: -ые for hard stems and -ие for soft stems. Plural endings are the same for all genders.

To form an adverb you should replace an adjective’s ending by -о:

хороший – хорошо

милый – мило

горячий – горячо

сильная – сильно

красивое – красиво

Russian adverbs almost always end with о. In some rare exceptions they end with е, like the adverbs

налегке (without a load or in light clothes)

вразвалку (swying while walking – when talking about a lazy or tired walk).

Adverbs are inflexible.

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