Adjectives & Possessives
In a nutshell
- Adjectives agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case — they change shape constantly, more than the noun itself.
- There are two adjective "shapes": hard-stem (но́вый) and soft-stem (си́ний) — the pattern is the same, just о↔е and ы↔и swapped throughout.
- Spelling rules (г к х ж ш щ ч can't be followed by ы; unstressed о after ж ш щ ч becomes е) reshape endings on words like ру́сский, хоро́ший, большо́й.
- Мой/твой/наш/ваш decline like adjectives; его́/её/их never change at all — they're frozen genitive pronoun forms, not true possessives.
Adjectives agree with their noun
An adjective in Russian isn't a fixed word bolted onto a noun — it's a full declining word that mirrors whatever gender, number, and case the noun it describes is in. This means one adjective, like но́вый ("new"), has dozens of possible forms depending on context.
Full paradigm: но́вый (hard-stem type)
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | но́вый | но́вая | но́вое | но́вые |
| Accusative (inanimate) | но́вый | но́вую | но́вое | но́вые |
| Accusative (animate) | но́вого | но́вую | но́вое | но́вых |
| Genitive | но́вого | но́вой | но́вого | но́вых |
| Dative | но́вому | но́вой | но́вому | но́вым |
| Instrumental | но́вым | но́вой | но́вым | но́выми |
| Prepositional | но́вом | но́вой | но́вом | но́вых |
Я ви́жу но́вый дом. — lit. "I see new-ACC house-ACC." — "I see a new house." (masculine inanimate accusative — looks like nominative)
Я ви́жу но́вого студе́нта. — lit. "I see new-ACC-animate student-ACC." — "I see a new student." (masculine animate accusative — looks like genitive)
That animate/inanimate split in the masculine singular and in the plural mirrors exactly what you learned for nouns in the Accusative Case lesson — animate accusative borrows the genitive form. It's not a separate rule to learn twice, just the same logic applied to the adjective agreeing with its noun.
Soft-stem type: си́ний
A smaller group of adjectives have stems ending in a "soft" consonant (usually н preceded by a soft-signaling vowel) and swap every hard vowel in the paradigm for its soft partner: о→е, ы→и, у→ю, а→я.
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | си́ний | си́няя | си́нее | си́ние |
| Accusative (inanimate) | си́ний | си́нюю | си́нее | си́ние |
| Genitive | си́него | си́ней | си́него | си́них |
| Prepositional | си́нем | си́ней | си́нем | си́них |
У меня́ си́няя ру́чка. — lit. "At me blue-fem pen-fem." — "I have a blue pen."
Compare но́вая (hard, о) to си́няя (soft, я) — same job, same position in the word, just the hard/soft vowel swapped. Once you can see that mapping, the soft paradigm stops being "new" and becomes "the same table with different letters."
Spelling-rule stems: ру́сский, хоро́ший, большо́й
Recall the Alphabet lesson's spelling rules: г к х ж ш щ ч are never followed by ы (use и instead), and ж ш щ ч are never followed by an unstressed о (use е instead — but a stressed о after these letters is fine and stays о). These rules reshape some very common adjectives.
ру́сский (Russian) has a stem ending in ск — since к can't be followed by ы, the masculine nominative ending is -ий (ру́сский), not "-ый."
хоро́ший (good) has a stem ending in ш. The stress is on the stem (хоро́ш-), so the ending after ш is unstressed — that means о is not allowed, so it surfaces as -ий: хоро́ший, not "хорошой."
большо́й (big) also has a stem ending in ш. But here the stress falls on the ending itself — большо́й — so the "no unstressed о" rule doesn't apply; a stressed о after ш is fine, giving -о́й.
| ру́сский | хоро́ший | большо́й | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masc. nom. | ру́сский | хоро́ший | большо́й |
| Fem. nom. | ру́сская | хоро́шая | больша́я |
| Neut. nom. | ру́сское | хоро́шее | большо́е |
| Plural nom. | ру́сские | хоро́шие | больши́е |
Э́то хоро́шая иде́я. — lit. "This good-fem idea-fem." — "That's a good idea."
У неё большо́й дом. — lit. "At her big-masc house." — "She has a big house."
The takeaway: these aren't irregular adjectives — they follow the same hard-stem paradigm as но́вый, but the spelling rules automatically swap ы→и and (when unstressed) о→е at the point where those letters would otherwise appear.
Possessive pronouns: мой, твой, наш, ваш
These behave like adjectives — they decline for gender, number, and case, and their form agrees with the noun being possessed, not with the owner's gender.
| Case | Masc. (мой) | Fem. (моя́) | Neut. (моё) | Plural (мои́) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | мой | моя́ | моё | мои́ |
| Accusative (inan.) | мой | мою́ | моё | мои́ |
| Genitive | моего́ | мое́й | моего́ | мои́х |
| Dative | моему́ | мое́й | моему́ | мои́м |
| Prepositional | моём | мое́й | моём | мои́х |
твой (your, informal) follows exactly the same pattern: твой / твоя́ / твоё / твои́.
| Case | Masc. (наш) | Fem. (на́ша) | Neut. (на́ше) | Plural (на́ши) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | наш | на́ша | на́ше | на́ши |
| Accusative (inan.) | наш | на́шу | на́ше | на́ши |
| Genitive | на́шего | на́шей | на́шего | на́ших |
| Prepositional | на́шем | на́шей | на́шем | на́ших |
ваш (your, formal/plural) follows the same pattern: ваш / ва́ша / ва́ше / ва́ши.
Э́то моя́ кни́га. — lit. "This my-fem book-fem." — "This is my book." (моя́ agrees with кни́га, feminine — not with the speaker's own gender)
Мы говори́м с на́шим учи́телем. — lit. "We speak with our-INSTR teacher-INSTR." — "We're speaking with our teacher."
его́, её, их — frozen, never decline
Unlike мой/твой/наш/ваш, the third-person possessives его́ ("his/its"), её ("her/its"), and их ("their") never change form, no matter what noun they attach to or what case that noun is in. That's because they aren't really possessive adjectives at all — they're the frozen genitive case of the pronouns он/оно́ (его́), она́ (её), and они́ (их), reused to mean "belonging to him/her/them." You'll see this explained again from the pronoun side in Lesson 11: Pronouns.
Э́то его́ кни́га. — lit. "This his book-fem." — "This is his book." (его́ stays его́ even though кни́га is feminine)
Я чита́ю его́ кни́гу. — lit. "I read his book-ACC." — "I'm reading his book." (кни́гу changed to accusative; его́ did not change at all)
Мы говори́м об их пла́нах. — lit. "We speak about their plans-PREP." — "We're talking about their plans." (их is unchanged; пла́нах took the prepositional plural ending)
Э́тот / тот — demonstratives that decline
Unlike его́/её/их, the demonstratives э́тот ("this") and тот ("that") do decline, agreeing with their noun like an adjective:
| Case | Masc. | Fem. | Neut. | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | э́тот | э́та | э́то | э́ти |
| Accusative (inan.) | э́тот | э́ту | э́то | э́ти |
| Genitive | э́того | э́той | э́того | э́тих |
| Prepositional | э́том | э́той | э́том | э́тих |
тот follows the same pattern: тот / та / то / те.
Я хочу́ э́ту кни́гу. — lit. "I want this-fem-ACC book-ACC." — "I want this book."
Он живёт в том до́ме. — lit. "He lives in that-PREP house-PREP." — "He lives in that house."
Short-form adjectives: рад, гото́в, до́лжен
A small set of adjectives have a short form, used only as the predicate ("[subject] is ___"), never in front of a noun. Short forms don't decline by case at all — they only change for gender and number, similar to past-tense verbs.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| рад (glad) | рад | ра́да | ра́до | ра́ды |
| гото́в (ready) | гото́в | гото́ва | гото́во | гото́вы |
| до́лжен (must/should) | до́лжен | должна́ | должно́ | должны́ |
Я рад тебя́ ви́деть. — lit. "I glad-masc you-ACC to-see." — "I'm glad to see you."
Она́ должна́ рабо́тать за́втра. — lit. "She must-fem to-work tomorrow." — "She has to work tomorrow."
Мы гото́вы. — lit. "We ready-plural." — "We're ready."
Notice these short forms never have a noun sitting right next to them the way но́вый дом does — они always stand alone as the predicate, after the subject.
Comparatives, briefly
The simplest and most common comparatives are irregular one-word forms you just memorize:
| Adjective | Simple comparative | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| большо́й (big) | бо́льше | bigger |
| хоро́ший (good) | лу́чше | better |
| плохо́й (bad) | ху́же | worse |
| интере́сный (interesting) | интере́снее | more interesting |
Э́та кни́га интере́снее. — lit. "This book more-interesting." — "This book is more interesting."
Мой брат ста́рше меня́. — lit. "My brother older me-GEN." — "My brother is older than me." (comparatives often take a genitive "than," which you'll recognize from Lesson 4: Genitive)
For adjectives that don't have a short irregular comparative, or in more formal writing, Russian uses an analytic form: бо́лее ("more") placed before the plain adjective.
Э́тот вопро́с бо́лее сло́жный. — lit. "This question more complex." — "This question is more complex."
At A2 you mostly need to recognize бо́льше/лу́чше/ху́же/интере́снее by sound and use them in simple comparisons — full comparative/superlative mechanics go deeper than this lesson covers.
Practice
- Decline но́вый студе́нт in the accusative case (remember: animate!).
- Give the feminine nominative of си́ний.
- Why is ру́сский spelled with -ий and not "-ый"?
- Why is большо́й spelled with -о́й while хоро́ший is spelled with -ий? (both stems end in ш)
- Decline моя́ кни́га into the genitive case.
- Translate: "This is her house." (use её)
- Explain why её doesn't change in the sentence "Я ви́жу её сестру́" even though сестру́ is accusative.
- Decline э́тот дом into the prepositional case.
- Give the correct short form of гото́в for a plural subject "они́."
- Translate: "He must work today." (до́лжен + рабо́тать)
- Translate using a simple comparative: "This tea is better."
- Fill in the blank with бо́лее or the correct short comparative: Э́та зада́ча ___ сло́жная. (this task is more complex)
Answers
- но́вого студе́нта — animate masculine accusative borrows the genitive form.
- си́няя — soft-stem feminine nominative ending.
- Because the stem ends in к, and the spelling rule forbids ы after г к х ж ш щ ч — so и replaces it, giving -ий.
- большо́й has the stress on the ending (о́й), where a stressed о after ш is allowed; хоро́ший has the stress on the stem, so the unstressed о after ш must become е, spelled -ий.
- мое́й кни́ги — feminine genitive singular of моя́ + genitive of кни́га.
- Э́то её дом. — её never changes regardless of the gender of the noun it possesses.
- её is a frozen genitive pronoun form (not a true adjective), so it never declines to match the case of the noun it modifies — only сестру́ takes the accusative ending.
- в э́том до́ме — masculine prepositional singular of э́тот + prepositional of дом.
- гото́вы — plural short form.
- Он до́лжен рабо́тать сего́дня. — masculine short form of до́лжен + imperfective infinitive.
- Э́тот чай лу́чше. — irregular simple comparative of хоро́ший.
- Э́та зада́ча бо́лее сло́жная. — analytic comparative, since сло́жный doesn't have a common irregular short comparative form used this way.