Russian interrogative pronoun КАКОЙ

Russian grammar: Russian interrogative words

As you already know from our previous lessons, the pronoun какой means what or which. To be able to compose questions with it, you should know how to decline it.

The pronoun какой agrees in gender, number and case of the noun it refers to:

* inanimate / animate

It looks like a lot, but believe us, the more you practice, the easier it gets. So let’s practice a bit and look at some examples:

Како́й стиль музы́ки ты предпочита́ешь?
What style of music do you prefer?
{Accusative, masculine}

Каки́е футбо́льные клу́бы ты зна́ешь?
What football clubs do you know?
{Accusative, plural, inanimate}

Каки́х люде́й вы хоте́ли бы здесь ви́деть?
What kind of people would you like to see here?
{Accusative, plural, animate}

Каки́ми языка́ми владе́ет наш президе́нт?
What languages does our president speak?
{Instrumental, plural}

На како́м инструме́нте игра́ет твой брат?
What instrument does your brother play?
{Prepositional, masculine}

What size, color, length and so on is something?

Read the examples below and memorize the pattern. In all the cases about, the pronoun какой is in the Genitive case.

Како́го цве́та твоя́ маши́на?
What color is your car?

Како́й высоты́ э́то де́рево?
What is the height of this tree?

Како́й ширины́ э́та река́?
What is the width of this river?

Како́й глубины́ о́зеро Байка́л?
What is the depth of the Lake Baikal?

Како́го э́то разме́ра?
What size is it?

Каки́х разме́ров бу́дет де́тская в но́вой кварти́ре?
What size will the new children’s room in the new apartment?

Practice your pronunciation with the audio file of this lesson. And come back soon for more Russian lessons!

• 088. Need, have to, must, should in the Past and Future tense
• 090. Russian interrogative pronoun ЧЕЙ