Lesson 068

Use of the long form of Russian adjectives

You already know that generally the long form of Russian adjectives goes before the word it describes and agrees with the noun or pronoun in gender, number and case. In this lesson, we’ll have a look at some more examples of the use of the adjectives.

1. When making a statement (in the predicative function) the adjective goes after the noun:

Present tense (Nominative case):

Пого́да хоро́шая.
The weather is fine.

Ко́фе уже холо́дный.
The coffee is cold already.

Past or Future tense (Instrumental or Nominative):

Пого́да была́ хоро́шей.
The weather was fine.

Пого́да была́ хоро́шая.
The weather was fine.

Пого́да бу́дет хоро́шей.
The weather will be fine.

Пого́да бу́дет хоро́шая.
The weather will be fine.

Кофе был уже холодным.
The coffee was cold already.

Кофе был уже холодный.
The coffee was cold already.

Ко́фе уже́ бу́дет холо́дным.
The coffee will be cold already.

Ко́фе уже́ бу́дет холо́дный.
The coffee will be cold already.

The Nominative is mostly used in colloqial speech. The Instrumental is prefered in written Russian.

Russian Pod 101

2. Used in the Instrumental case after the verbs like казаться (to seem), оказаться (to turn out), считаться (to be considered), становиться/стать (to became) and some other words, the long form of adjective also goes after the noun:

Э́то показа́лось мне интере́сным.
It seemed interesting to me.

Ожида́ние ста́ло невыноси́мым.
Waiting has become unbearable.

Э́то счита́ется здесь общепри́нятым.
It is generally accepted here.

Посы́лка оказа́лась вскры́той.
The parcel turned out to be the opened.

3. Answering the questions like In what state? or In what order? the long form of adjectives goes after the noun as well and used in the Instrumental:

Не оставля́й ба́нку с са́харом откры́той.
Do not leave the bank with sugar open.

Мы пришли́ после́дними.
We came the last.

4. If there are dependent words after the described noun, the adjective also goes after it (generally separated by a comma):

Мы уви́дели его́, мо́крого от по́та, на друго́й стороне́ доро́ги.
We saw him, wet with sweat, on the other side of the road. (Genitive).

Listen to the audio track and practice the pronunciation of all these examples.

The offline version of this lesson is available here

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