Russian Grammar Charts - Adjectives
Key
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How to use this chart
The chart references changes that need to be made from the Nominative endings (left).
Use the Key to determine the type of change to be made.
For example, to make новый genitive: this is a masculine adjective with hard ending
and stress on last syllable so follows Rule 3-
so look at the change at the intersection between Masculine ый and Genitive.
The change is >ого, so this means "replace ending with ого",
so the genitive is нового
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The majority of adjectives end in
ый in the nominative masculine singular. These are hard endings e.g.
новый
If the adjective ends in
ий and doesn’t bear the stress e.g.
синий, it’s a soft ending.
Download a free printable PDF version to refer to your studies
| |
Gender |
Endings |
Accusative |
Genitive |
Dative |
Prepositional |
Instrumental |
| Hard |
M |
ый 2 3 4 5 |
*1 |
> ого |
> ому |
> ом |
> ым 2 3 |
| F |
ая |
>ую |
> ой |
> ой |
> ой |
> ой |
| N |
ое 4 |
* |
> ого |
> ому |
> ом |
> ым 2 3 |
|
P
|
ые |
*1 |
> ых |
> ым |
> ых |
> ыми |
|
|
Soft |
M
|
ий |
* |
> его |
> ему |
> ем |
> им |
|
F
|
яя |
> юю |
> ей |
> ей |
> ей |
> ей |
|
N
|
ее |
* |
> его |
> ему |
> ей |
> им |
|
P
|
ие |
*1 |
> их |
> им |
> их |
> ими |
Notes
1 Accusative Masculine and all genders in Plural - use Genitive if object is human or animal
2 When stem ends in г,к or х then ы
changes to и to become ий in Nominative e.g.
русский Also becomes им in Instrumental e.g. русский
(hard adjective) becomes русским. In all other cases follows hard
adjective masculine pattern.
3 When stress falls on last syllable, masculine nominative and inanimate accusative has ending ой instead of ый e.g. голубой
and Instrumental has им instead of ым
4 When stem ends in ж,ч,ш or щ, the
ы of the endings is replaced by и and the о
(when not stressed) is replaced by е (only the first o
in the ending is replaced). E.g. For свежий; nom/acc neuter is
свежее, gen. (m/n) is свежего (f) is свожей,
dative (m/n) is свежему (f) is свежей, prep. (m/n) is свежем (f) is свежей, inst. (m/n) is свежим
(f) is свежей
5 Adjectives with a stress on the ending e.g. ой also follow this pattern. E.g. большой
жий,чий,ший,щий follow soft adjective pattern
Remember - foreign origin words don’t decline