Prepositional Singular Adjectives

Hello,
I am having a bit of a hard time with the prepositional singular adjective rule and Spelling Rule 3.
I think it is perhaps that I am not sure when a stem is stressed or unstressed. My book states:

Masc and Neuter endings are: ом /ем*
Feminine endings are: ой/ей*

*The choice between the endings ом /ем and ой/ей is determined by Spelling Rule 3:
After жчшщц write о in stressed singular endings, and е in unstressed singular endings.

But then it uses the adjective новой. To me this is incorrect, but I am pretty sure that I
have a misunderstanding of the rule. Can someone please put it in simpler terms for me
and perhaps explain the stressed/unstressed endings thing? Thanks.

You can find stress of each Russian word in any Russian vocabulary. Just remember it. In any word one and only one vowel is stressed.

In the word "новый" ending is after the letter "в", so Rule 3 from your book is not applicable because it considers only adjectives with endings "After жчшщц".

Example:
adjective "ры'жий" (ginger)
Ending is after letter "ж", so Rule 3 is applicaple. Sound "ы" is stressed, so ending is unstressed.
Fem. Nom. рыжая
Mas. Prep. о рыжем
Fem. Prep. о рыжей

adjective "большо'й" (big)
Ending is after letter "ш", so Rule 3 is applicaple. Second "o" sound is stressed, which is in the ending, so ending is stressed.
Fem. Nom. большая
Mas. Prep. о большом
Fem. Prep. о большой

Then how do they justify using that ending: ой ?

I have added some examples to my first reply.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pberardi

Then how do they justify using that ending: ой ?

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Maybe there are other rules in your book? About different adjectives than ones with endings after жчшщц.

you use the ending with "oj" automatically in all words. The only exception is adjectives ending in "sh,shch,zh,ch,ts" - for the words ending in those letters, you use "oj" when the ending is stressed and "ej" otherwise.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by John_Douglas

you use the ending with "oj" automatically in all words. The only exception is adjectives ending in "sh,shch,zh,ch,ts" - for the words ending in those letters, you use "oj" when the ending is stressed and "ej" otherwise.

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Not exactly. "-ой" is used if the sound before ending is hard "-ей" is used if the sound before ending is soft. Exception is adjectives with endings after жчшщц - see Rule 3.

http://www.russianforeveryone.com/Ru...ramUnit7_1.htm

Remember that native speakers are usually not aware of these rules and use them intuitively. :)