Grammar Lesson: Everything About Adjectives

[Katrink]

Today I am going to give you a short grammar lesson. In this thread you will learn everything about the correct usages of adjectives in the Russian language. So let’s start with a definition. Adjectives are a part of speech, describing the noun. If you can apply one of the following questions, so the word is an adjective. (What kind is it? How many are there? Which one is it? )

The main grammar categories of adjectives is number, gender and case. On top of that, adjectives have degrees of comparison. Russian adjectives have own peculiarity comparing with other parts of speech. We have two forms of adjectives: a full form and a short form.

In a sentence you can often find adjective near nouns, and its function is attributive. Grammatical meaning of adjectives is shown with help of inflexions. Here are common inflexions for Russian adjectives:

-ый like in word добрый (dobryj) - kind

- ий like in word синий (sinij) - blue

- чий  like in word лежачий (ležačij) - lying

- иный  like in word спокойный (spokojnyj) - quiet

There is one important rule: in adjectives we write letter Ы instead of  И, after letter Ц.  For example: куцый (kucyj) - dock-tailed,

бледнолицый (blednolicyj) - pale-faced

Adjectives have two degrees of comparison: comparative and superlative.

Superlative degree is formed with such words: самый (samy) - most

наиболее (naibolee) - most

более (bolee) - more

See this example:

Сильный – сильнее- самый сильный

Sil´nyj – sil´nee- samyj sil´nyj

Strong - stronger - the strongest

Мягкий – мягче –самый мягкий

Mâgkij – mâgče –samyj mâgkij

Soft - softer - the softest

Сcomparative degree is formed via suffixes:

- ее, - ей, - е

Like in words

глупее (glupee) - more stupid

мягче (mâgče) - softer

реже ( reže) - more rarely

уже (uže) - narrower

выше (vyše) - higher

Some adjectives form comparative degree with a  help of affix – ие.

Let us illustrate on this example:

тонкий- тоньше (tonkij- ton´še), thin - thinner

далекий – дальше (dalekij – dal´še), far- farther

маленький  - меньше (malen´kij  - men´še) small - smaller

Comparative degree is not declined by number, case and gender.

As I already mentioned, there are two forms of adjective: full and short.

The full form of adjectives can be declined by gender case and number, but short forms are not declined, they have own words.

To understand the difference between full and short form, read this pair of words:

Интересный – интересен (Interesnyj – interesen) interesting

Хороший – хорош (Horošij – horoš) good

Умный – умен (Umnyj – umen) clever

Дорогой – дорог (Dorogoj – dorog) expensive

Compare two sentences:

Его родители были тогда очень богаты. (Ego roditeli byli togda očen´ bogaty.)

His parents were very rich.

Месторождения богатые, их можно разрабатывать десятки лет.

(Mestoroždeniâ bogatye, ih možno razrabatyvat´ desâtki let.)

Rich deposits can be developed for decades.

We usually use short forms for to describe something temporary. Full forms are often used when we want to say about constant attribute of object.