Russian adjectives (introduction)
You’ve already learned the basics about Russian nouns, pronouns, verbs, numerals and prepositions. Today we start a new chapter of the Russian grammar and move on to the Russian adjectives.
There are a few types of adjectives in the Russian language, in this lesson we’ll learn just one of them – the normal type.
Here is the list of some common Russian adjectives (some of them you already saw in our examples):
краси́вый [kra-sée-vyî] – beautiful
хоро́ший [ha-ró-sheeî] – good
плохо́й [pla-hóî] – bad
у́мный [úm-nyî] – smart
глу́пый [glú-pyî] – stupid
высо́кий [vy-só-keeî] – high
ни́зкий [néez-keeî] – low
чёрный [chyór-nyî] – black
бе́лый [byé-lyî] – white
си́ний [sée-neeî] – blue
большо́й [bal’-shóî] – big, large
ма́ленький [má-leen’-keeî] – small
широ́кий [shee-ró-keeî] – wide
у́зкий [ús-keeî] – narrow
The default adjective gender is masculine. To use them with feminine and neuter nouns you’ll need to change their endings. Here are the typical endings by gender and number:
masculine endings: ый, ий
feminine endings: ая, яя
neuter endings: ое, ее
plural endings: ые, ие
To change the gender of an adjective, replace:
ый, ий with ая / ое, but
ший with шая / шее
ний with няя / нeе
To change the number of an adjective, replace:
ый with ые
ий with ие
Examples:
краси́вый дом – beautiful house
краси́вая де́вушка – beautiful girl
краси́вое де́рево – beautiful tree
краси́вые цветы́ – beautiful flowers
хоро́ший сове́т – good advise
хоро́шая пого́да – good weather
хоро́шее настрое́ние – good mood
хоро́шие но́вости – good news
си́ний зонт – blue umbrella
си́няя ю́бка – blue skirt
си́нее пла́тье – blue dress
си́ние боти́нки – blue shoes
As you might have noticed from these examples, the Russians usually put the adjectives before the subject. But in some cases the adjective can go after the subject. It’s often used in poetry or to give a sentence some emotional tint.
To finish with this lesson, memorize the common Russian adjectives, the endings of the adjectives in different genders, and practice the examples with the audio track.
In the future we will learn how to change the Russian adjectives in different cases.
The offline version of this lesson is available here
Start the quiz-
Question # 1Say it in Russian:white
- бе́лый
- си́ний
- ни́зкий
- у́зкий
Answered: 0 out of 15Next
Correct answers: 0 (0%)
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Question # 2
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Question # 3
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Question # 4
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Question # 5Say it in Russian:bad
- большо́й
- у́мный
- плохо́й
- чёрный
Answered: 0 out of 15Next
Correct answers: 0 (0%)
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Question # 6Say it in Russian:blue
- ни́зкий
- высо́кий
- широ́кий
- си́ний
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Correct answers: 0 (0%)
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Question # 7
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Question # 8
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Question # 9Translate to English:чёрный зонт
- black skirt
- black umbrella
- beautiful dress
- beautiful shoes
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Correct answers: 0 (0%)
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Question # 10Translate to English:у́мная де́вушка
- beautiful girl
- good advise
- smart girl
- bad mood
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Question # 11Which option is incorrect?
- глу́пый челове́к
- у́мные лю́ди
- у́зкая река́
- большо́е дом
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Correct answers: 0 (0%)
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Question # 12Which option is incorrect?
- у́мнае
- плохо́е
- у́зкая
- чёрные
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Correct answers: 0 (0%)
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Question # 13Which option is incorrect?
- плоха́я пого́да
- плохи́е настрое́ние
- плохо́й челове́к
- плохо́е ка́чество
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Correct answers: 0 (0%)
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Question # 14Which option is correct?
- высо́кие де́рево
- широ́кая река́
- глу́пие посту́пки
- бе́лое стол
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Correct answers: 0 (0%)
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Question # 15Which option is incorrect?
- ни́зкий стол
- ма́ленькая ча́шка
- чёрное и бе́лое
- большы́е пла́ны
Answered: 0 out of 15
Correct answers: 0 (0%)
More lessons on the Russian adjectives
- Russian adjectives (introduction)
- Declension of Russian adjectives
- Use of the long form of Russian adjectives
- The short form of Russian adjectives
- The comparative degree of Russian adjectives: the long form
- The comparative degree of Russian adjectives: the short form
- The superlative degree of Russian adjectives
you are doing an exellent job…i like more
best regards
Mr.rahim
Thank you rahim.m.