Adjectives in Russian: What are they, how to form them, and how to use them?

In Russian, as in English, an adjective is a word that describes a noun or pronoun. It shows qualities of the noun or pronoun like…

• Color:

  • красный (transcribed KRAsnyi, meaning “red”)

  • синий (transcribed SEEniy, meaning “blue”)

• Size:

  • большой (transcribed balSHOY, meaning “big”)

  • маленький (transcribed MAlinkiy, meaning “small”)

• Temperature:

  • холодный (transcribed khaLOdnyi, meaning “cold”)

  • тёплый (transcribed TYOplyi, meaning “warm”)

• Taste:

  • сладкий (transcribed SLAdkiy, meaning “sweet”)

  • солёный (transcribed saLYOnyi, meaning “salty”)

• ...and more!

This post is an introduction to the basics of how to use adjectives in Russian. We’ll start by discussing where to put Russian adjectives in a sentence, and then we’ll move on to discussing how the forms of Russian adjectives change to “match” or “agree with” the nouns they describe. After that we’ll talk about the difference between long and short adjectives, how to use adjectives as nouns, and how we use adjectives to form the names of people.

Ready to start becoming an excellent Russian speaker by using beautiful, lovely, glorious adjectives? Let's go!

Usually an adjective in Russian goes before the noun.

But adjectives can also be used in a few other positions:

1. After the verb:

   Just like in English, in Russian some adjectives come after linking verbs like “seem,” “look,” “become,” or, most commonly “to be.”

   nounlinking verbadjective

   Дом был большой.

   Transcription: dom byl balSHOY.

   Translation: The house was big.

   However, in Russian the verb “to be” isn’t used in the present tense! This means that when we want to say a sentence like “this house is big” or “the students are very talented,” we just put the adjective right after the noun or pronoun, without a verb in between.

   nounadjective

   Этот дом большой.

   Transcription: Etat dom balSHOY.

   Translation: This house (is) big.

   Эти студенты очень талантливые.

   Transcription: Eti stooDENty OCHen taLANtlivye.

   Translation: These students (are) very talented.

2. After a noun:

   Sometimes an adjective can follow the noun it describes, even when there is no implied verb “to be.” This emphasizes the quality of the noun or pronoun.

   nounadjective

   Я вижу машину красную.

   Transcription: ya VEEzoo maSHEEnoo KRAsnooyu.

   Translation: I see a red car.

   This emphasizes that it is not blue or white or some other color.

   Мы говорим о новостях важных.

   Transcription: my gavaREEM a navaSTYAKH VAzhnyh.

   Translation: We speak about important news.

   This emphasizes that it’s not just silly gossip.

Russian adjectives agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. Let’s talk about what that means.

When you use a Russian noun or pronoun, you have to know three big things about it:

1. Its gender → Is it masculine, feminine, or neuter?

2. Its number → Is it singular or plural?

3. Its case → Is it nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, prepositional, or instrumental?

When you use a Russian adjective to describe a noun, its form will depend on the gender, number, and case of that noun. Basically, the noun is the boss!

The ending you’ll need to add to a particular adjective to mark the case, number, and gender of an adjective will depend on what declension (or “pattern”) the adjective belongs to. You can identify the declension of an adjective by looking at its dictionary form, which is its nominative singular masculine form.

Let’s start off by talking about how you can use this dictionary form to choose the right ending for an adjective in the nominative case, then we’ll talk a little more about the other cases further down.

Russian adjectives have two forms, called long and short adjectives.

• The long form is the one we’ve discussed above, and it is more common in spoken Russian.

• The short form is considered to be more formal and is frequently used in written Russian.

There is also a slight difference in meaning between the two. While long adjectives usually reflect a permanent condition of the noun or pronoun which it describes, a short adjective reflects a temporary state.

Luckily, though, short adjectives are actually easier to form than long adjectives, since each short adjective has only four different forms and does not change with case.

Here are some comparisons between long and short adjectives. Do you notice the slight difference in meaning?

Check out our post on long and short adjectives in Russian to learn a lot more about this distinction!

Adjectival nouns in Russian are adjectives that are used like nouns in a sentence. We do this in English too. In a sentence like “I put some more blue on my paintbrush,” the word “blue” acts like a noun even though it’s usually an adjective (as in, “blue paint”).

In Russian, even though adjectival nouns act like a noun in the sentence, they still take adjective endings, not the noun ones. This is true even when the meaning of an adjectival noun is a little different from the meaning of the regular adjective.

Here are some examples…

• русский (transcribed ROOskiy, meaning “Russian”)

  • adjective

    Я изучаю русский язык.

    Transcription: ya izooCHAyu ROOskiy yaZYk.

    Translation: I study the Russian language.
  • adjectival noun

    Русские любят чай.

    Transcription: ROOskiye LYUbyat chay.

    Translation: Russians like tea.

    The ending -ие usually marks nominative plural adjectives, not nominative plural nouns

• столовый (transcribed staLOviy, meaning “(relating to) tables”)

  • adjective

    Я купил новый столовый сервиз.

    Transcription: ya kooPЕЕL NOvyi staLOvyi servis.

    Translation: I bought a new dinner set.

    Literally: lit. I bought a new table set.
  • adjectival noun

    В столовой хорошая еда.

    Transcription: v staLOvay khaROshaya yeDA.

    Translation: There is good food in the cafeteria.

    The ending -ой usually marks feminine singular adjectives in the prepositional case, not nouns.

Now I am sure you understand adjectives in Russian well. There are some important points you should remember:

• Adjectives in Russian usually precede the noun they describe, but they can follow the noun in some cases.

• Russian adjectives agree with the noun they describe in gender (masculine, feminine, neuter), number (singular or plural), and case (nominative, accusative, prepositional, genitive, dative, and instrumental).

• We covered the detailed agreement forms of nominative adjectives and introduced you to adjective endings in other cases as well.

• Most adjectives in Russian have two forms: long and short.

• Some adjectives in Russian can function in the sentence as a noun.

• Some last names in Russian have adjectival endings and they change their ending the same way as regular adjectives do.