Russian Adjectives

In Russian adjectives agree with nouns in number, gender and case.
Plural forms are the same for all three genders.

Russian adjectives have following declension types:

• adjectives with hard or soft ending
• adjectives with a stem ending in -г, -к, -х
• adjectives with a stem ending in sibilants -ж, -ч, -ш, -щ

(Stressed vowels are written in italic.)

* Accusative Singular of masculine adjectives and Accusative Plural of all adjectives take the same form as Nominative if it refers to an animate noun.

Она хочет купить белый костюм. – She wants to buy a white suit.
Я вижу важные документы. – I see important documents.

* Accusative Singular of masculine adjectives and Accusative Plural of all adjectives take the same form as Genitive if it refers to an inanimate noun.

Она хочет купить белого щенка. – Sche wants to buy a white puppy.
Я вижу важных людей. – I see important people.

Russian adjectives have a long and a shot form. To make an adjective short it is usually enough to drop the ending of the long form.

There are following short form endings:

• masculine: no ending
• feminine: -a
• neuter: -o
• plural: -ы / -и

**If the stem of an adjective ends in two consonants, the short form is made by inserting an -o or an –e between the consonants.

Example:
Его дедушка больной человек. – His grandfather is an ill man.
Его дедушка болен. – His grandfather is ill.

There are also special cases like, for example,
маленький (small) – мал (m) – мала (f) – мало (n) – малы (pl)

Эти туфли слишком маленькие. – These shoes are too small.
Эти туфли мне малы. – These shoes are too small for me.

COMPARATIVE

In Russian, regular comparative is formed by adding the ending -ее (-ей) to the word stem.

Example:
An important message – важное сообщение
This message is more important – это сообщение важнее

Compound comparative of Russian adjectives is formed with the help of the adverb более (more).
Example:
An important message – важное сообщение
A more important message – более важное сообщение

SUPERLATIVE

In Russian regular superlative is formed by adding the ending -ейший (m), -ейшая (f), -ейшое (n), -ейшие (pl) to the word stem.

Examples:

Masculine:
An important case – важный случай
The most important case – важнейший случай

Feminine:
An important piece of news – важная новость
The most important piece of news – важнейшая новость

Neuter:
An important announcement – важное сообщение
The most important announcement – важнейшее сообщение

Plural:
Important news – важные новости
Most important news – важнейшие новости

Compound superlative is formed with the help of the adjective самый (most).

Example:
An important announcement – важное сообщение
The most important announcement – самое важное сообщение