Thread: Russian adjectives. Long or Short ~ Ser or Estar?

Я был думать. Я знаю хорошо об "Ser o Estar"(the two both meaning "to be") на испанском языке, но у меня проблемы с краткими или долгими прилагательные (By the way, nouns that look like adjectives are confusing me, this word supposedly changes like an adjective? I don't believe that, but...). Я думаю, что эти два похожий. Я становлюсь быстрее на печатать)

Ser= Description, Occupation, Characteristic, Time, Origin, and Relationship...................................Lon g?
Estar= Position, Location, Action, Condition, and Emotion.................................................. .....................Short?

Now, these may be verbs, but my question is, is this the line between short and long adjectives?

P.S. This one is a long shot but, does Я играющ (сейчас) mean anything at all?

Я играющ - sounds like you made a short present participle there but it is not a word, sorry.

Она красива - short adjective
Она красивая - normal adjective

Он ужасный - normal
Он ужасен - short

The short adjectives are used only if there is no noun to the adjective

Она красива - okay. Она красива женщина - wrong, only она красивая женщина.

Moreover, the correct usage of short adjectives is a very complicated topic because sometimes it's inapproriate to use a short adjective at all or an adjective just doesn't have the short form (like маленький).

Yes, if a noun looks like an adjective it changes like an adjective. Examples:

Следующий - Позови следующего (пациента)
Столовая - В столовой (комнате)

Hope it helps

Originally Posted by iCake

The short adjectives are used only if there is no noun to the adjective

"Эта женщина красива"? There's certanly a noun for the adjective, but you still can use the short form (it's even preferable here).
"Хороша была Танюша, краше не было в селе..." (С. Есенин)

So it's not a rule. But noun going after a short adjective is, for sure, a very uncommon construction.

Originally Posted by iCake

or an adjective just doesn't have the short form (like маленький).

"Мал"?
"Мал золотник, да дорог" (поговорка)

But you made the right point.

For example, if you want to express temperature of an object

раскалённый - раскалён;
горячий - горяч;
тёплый - ??? (there's no such word "тёпл", I guess);
холодный - холоден;
ледяной - ??? ("леден"? Опять сомневаюсь, что есть такое слово).

So, 3 adjective do have short form, and 2 others - don't. Why is it so? I guess, people found short forms for these adjective sounding bad and never used them. So they didn't made their way into the language. May be there were some other reasons.

Usage of short forms makes you language more colorful but unless you know exactly how would it change the phrase - you should probably avoid it.

So, the rule is: if you're not sure, that short form of an adjective is needed - don't use it. There's high chance to make an error.

Мал is short for малый, not маленький. Not that it matters though as the two words are very close synonyms if not equivalents Just don't argue here The short adjectives are usually formed buy chopping off the ending - Малый - мал; маленький - маленьк? Doesn't sound right


As for Эта женщина красива - I see your point but it was not what I meant, I meant like "adjective - noun" order, didn't express it correctly though. My bad. Or maybe there is something I don't know about this

Originally Posted by iCake

Мал is short for малый, not маленький. Not that it matters though as the two words are very close synonyms if not equivalents Just don't argue here The short adjectives are usually formed buy chopping off the ending - Малый - мал; маленький - маленьк? Doesn't sound right

Isn't "маленький" a diminutive-hypocoristic (уменьшительно-ласкательная) form for "малый"? Suffix <еньк>, you know.

Originally Posted by iCake

I meant like "adjective - noun" order, didn't express it correctly though. My bad. Or maybe there is something I don't know about this

«"Хороша чертовка" — прохрипел Иван, занюхивая рукавом выпитую рюмку» (not sure - may be comma is needed and this example is irrelevant)

Originally Posted by Suobig

«"Хороша чертовка" — прохрипел Иван, занюхивая рукавом выпитую рюмку» (not sure - may be comma is needed and this example is irrelevant)

Ну чертовка же там подлежащее, хороша предикат Мы же просто опускаем глагол быть.

Например:

Хороша есть (ну или есмь, а то есть странно там ) чертовка ---- Чертовка (есть) хороша

bueno

маленький - маленек
маленькая - маленька

малеький - мал
маленькая - мала.