Thread: Adjective Endings

Greetings
My book doesn't explain when to use each of the adjective endings. I get the plural, feminine singular, mascuine singular etc, but the "Basic (Hard), Soft, and Soft (stressed)" endings don't make any sense as to when I should use them. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Darobat

Greetings
My book doesn't explain when to use each of the adjective endings. I get the plural, feminine singular, mascuine singular etc, but the "Basic (Hard), Soft, and Soft (stressed)" endings don't make any sense as to when I should use them. Thanks.

You don't "use" the hard or soft endings. An adjective just has a hard or soft ending, it's just the way it's spelt. Hard endings are much more common than soft endings.
If an adjective has a soft ending in the nominative, then it will have soft endings for all cases and numbers and genders.

Amazingly, I never learned what hard and soft endings for adjectives were, but I managed to learn Russian. To a decent level.

Originally Posted by Pravit

Amazingly, I never learned what hard and soft endings for adjectives were, but I managed to learn Russian. To a decent level.

It is good to know that I am following in your footsteps.

Ok.... So how do I know which of these is correct? Expierence?

Книга очень хороший
Книга очень хорошый
Книга очень хорошой

Does it not change? I thought it changed according to hte noun it was describing. Was I wrong? Thanks.

Originally Posted by Darobat

Ok.... So how do I know which of these is correct? Expierence?

Книга очень хороший
Книга очень хорошый
Книга очень хорошой

Does it not change? I thought it changed according to hte noun it was describing. Was I wrong? Thanks.

All of them are wrong. хороший is the nominative masucline singular adjective. хорошый is wrong because due to the spelling rules, Ы can never follow ш. Хорошой is wrong because it's not spelt that way. It's like saying, in english, which of these is right: Good, Gud, Goode. You just learn how to spell the word.

in this context Хорошая is right, because Книга is feminine:
хороший фильм - a good film (masc.)
хорошая книга - a good book (fem.)
хорошее пиво - a good beer (neut.)
хорошие книги - good books (plural)


Хороший is a hard adjective. It is just irregular sometimes because the stem ends in a Ш which means spelling rules come into play.

Most adjectives end in -ый in the masculine singular nominative. But many adjectives have a stem ending in one of the letters that isn't allowed to be followed by the letter ы - Ш Ц Г К Ж Х Ч Щ, so these have -ий instead.

But there is a group of adjectives that have truly soft endings [ all the endings start with a soft vowel instead of a hard vowel]: Then end in -ний
in the masculine singular nominative:

Let's compare the hard adjective новый (new) with the soft adjective последний (last):

Masculine / Feminine / Neuter / Plural
новый / новая / новое / новые
последний / последняя / последнее / последние

Oh, so you just have to memorize which of those categories it takes? That makes sense now. Thanks.

TATY, хорошee пиво.

I don't get it. Why is it ее.

Originally Posted by Darobat

Oh, so you just have to memorize which of those categories it takes? That makes sense now. Thanks.

Well you can tell just by looking at it.

If you see a new adjective. i.e.
вечерний (evening). Because it ends -ний you know its soft.

You need to learn these spelling rules:

1. After Г К Х Ш Ж Щ Ч you write И instead of Ы
e.g. the plural of книга is книги not the expected книгы.
[ This mostly affects adjectives, and plurals ]

2. After Ж Ш Ч Щ Ц you write Е instead of UNstressed О
e.g. хорошее пиво rather than the expected хорошое пиво.
Yet, Stressed O's are allowed: Большой (big) [ This mostly affects adjectives ]

3. After Г К Х Ж Ш Ч Щ Ц you write A instead of Я [ This mostly affects verb conjugations ]
e.g. Они учатся instead of the expected учятся

4. After Г К Х Ж Ш Ч Щ Ц you write У instead of Ю [ this mostly affects verb conugations ]
e.g. Я учусь instead of the expected Я чуюсь

The first two are important for adjectives.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

I don't get it. Why is it ее.

Neuter ending for this type of adjective ending in ий.

Originally Posted by TATY

[
You need to learn these spelling rules:

1. After Г К Х Ц Ш Ж Щ Ч you write И instead of Ы
e.g. the plural of книга is книги not the expected книгы.
[ This mostly affects adjectives, and plurals ]

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't Ц a typo?

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't Ц a typo?

Дворец--> Дворцы

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't Ц a typo?

Дворец--> Дворцы

Yeh, typo.

My book brought those spelling rules (or "Umbrella Spelling Rules") up really early in my book. It's nice to know where I'll see them come in handy though. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Darobat

My book brought those spelling rules (or "Umbrella Spelling Rules") up really early in my book. It's nice to know where I'll see them come in handy though. Thanks!

In your signature, there are 2 uses of the spelling rules.

Я учу русский язык. Я новичок.

Can you tell me where they are

I know учу is one, but is русский the other?

Originally Posted by Darobat

I know учу is one, but is русский the other?

Да. It's not учю or русскый