Learn Russian - Russian Language Lessons - Introduction to Adjectives

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VOCABULARY USED IN THIS LESSON

Russian	Pronunciation	English

белый	bEh-lee	white (masculine form)
лист	leest	sheet of paper (e.g., a sheet of A4 paper you use in a printer)
рубашка	roo-bAsh-ka	shirt
вино	vi-nO (make sure you get the stress correct, it's not vEE-no)	wine
ночи	nO-chi	nights

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The key to using Russian adjectives is remembering how to match the gender of an adjective to the gender of the noun it describes.

First you need to know the gender of the noun. If you're not sure how to do that yet then please revise Lesson 7 before continuing.

Second, you need to be able to separate the stem and suffix (ending) of each adjective. No matter what happens, the stem of an adjective will never change, but the suffix will change according to the gender of the noun.

Summary of Most Common Adjective Suffixes

-ый : agrees with most masculine nouns
-ая : agrees with most feminine nouns
-ое : agrees with most neuter nouns
-ые : agrees with most plural nouns

For example, with the masculine noun лист (sheet of paper), we might want to say something like "white sheet of paper ".

In this instance the adjective белый means "white".

The stem of белый is бел- and the masculine suffix is -ый.

Therefore, "white sheet of paper " = белый лист

White sheet of paper

белый лист

Pronounced:

bEh-lee leest

Listen:

(Lena)

If the noun was feminine, such as рубашка (shirt), then we add the feminine suffix -ая to the stem бел- to give белая.

So белая рубашка means "white shirt"! Easy so far?!

White shirt

белая рубашка

Pronounced:

bEh-lay-a roo-bAsh-ka

Listen:

(Lena)

In the case of neuter nouns, such as вино (wine), we add the suffix -ое to the adjective stem.

"White wine" in Russian is therefore белое вино.

White wine

белое вино

Pronounced:

bEh-la-ye vi-nO

Listen:

(Lena)

Finally, for plural adjectives the suffix is -ые, regardless of the gender of the noun.

For example, белые ночи means "white nights".

White nights

белые ночи

Pronounced:

bEh-le-ye nO-chi

Listen:

(Lena)

While these rules hold for most adjectives, there are exceptions that we will cover in the following advanced lessons.

White Nights: 11pm in St. Petersburg

White Nights

The White Nights (белые ночи) are an interesting environmental phenomenon that occur in areas across the globe that have a high latitude (i.e., are closer to the Arctic Circle). Around the summer solstice in June, the days become unusually long with only a few hours of darkness each night, and sometimes night (complete darkness) doesn't fall at all!

White nights have become a common symbol of Saint Petersburg, and the last 10 days of June are celebrated with cultural events. For foreigners it can be a very strange experience to walk the streets at 11pm in semi-daylight.

White Nights is also the title of a short story by the famous Russian author, Fyodor Dostoevsky, who explores the meeting of two lonely hearts in St.Petersburg.