Adjective agreement in the nominative

Most Russian adjectives must agree with their noun in gender, number, and case (though a few borrowed words like хаки or беж are invariable). This specific pattern covers agreement in the nominative case, which is used when the noun is the subject of the sentence or a predicate noun/adjective. Note that possessive adjectives (e.g., лисий, папин) use a different set of nominative endings.

1. The Question Word Какой
To ask 'what kind of' or 'which', use the question word какой. Its forms perfectly mirror the stressed adjective endings and serve as a great anchor for memorization: какой (masculine), какая (feminine), какое (neuter), and какие (plural).

2. The Four Categories

• Masculine: Ends in -ый (hard), -ий (true soft, or hard affected by spelling rules), or -ой (stressed). Example: новый дом (new house).
• Feminine: Ends in -ая (hard) or -яя (soft). Example: новая машина (new car).
• Neuter: Ends in -ое (hard) or -ее (soft). Example: новое окно (new window).
• Plural: Ends in -ые (hard) or -ие (soft, or hard affected by spelling rules). Note: Gender is not distinguished in the plural! Example: новые книги (new books).

It is crucial to distinguish true soft-stem adjectives (like синий, which takes soft endings across all genders: синяя, синее) from hard-stem adjectives affected by spelling rules (like русский, which takes the hard feminine ending русская).

3. Spelling Rules and Mixed Declension
Adjectives ending in velars (г, к, х), hushers (ж, ч, ш, щ), and ц belong to the Mixed Declension (смешанное склонение) because they mix hard and soft-looking endings due to spelling rules:

• The 7-Letter Rule: After г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ, you can never write ы. You must use и instead (e.g., русский). This rule is also why the plural forms of these adjectives end in -ие instead of -ые (e.g., русские, хорошие). If the masculine ending is stressed, it is ALWAYS -ой (e.g., плохой, большой, чужой). Since this ending does not contain ы, the 7-letter rule simply does not come into play.
• The 5-Letter Rule: After ж, ч, ш, щ, ц, an unstressed о changes to е. This is why хороший (good) has the neuter form хорошее instead of хорошое, and куцый (short-tailed) becomes куцее. If the ending is stressed, the о remains (e.g., большой -> большое).
• The 8-Letter Rule: After г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ, ц, you can never write я or ю. You must use а or у instead. For adjectives, this explains why hushing stems (ж, ч, ш, щ) take the hard feminine ending -ая instead of -яя (e.g., хорошая). Note that velar stems (г, к, х) are already fundamentally hard stems, so their default feminine ending is naturally -ая (e.g., русская).

4. Hard vs. Soft Stems
Most adjectives are 'hard'. A small group are 'soft' (like синий - blue). Because both soft stems and mixed declension adjectives can end in -ий in the masculine, the only reliable way to distinguish a true soft stem from a spelling-rule stem in the nominative is to check the feminine form (-яя for soft stems, -ая for velar and hushing stems). A helpful shortcut: almost all true soft-stem adjectives in Russian end in -ний (e.g., синий, последний, летний).

5. Predicate Usage
In Russian, there is usually no present tense copula (is/are). Word order distinguishes an attributive adjective from a predicate. Placing the adjective before the noun modifies it (e.g., новый дом = a new house), while placing it after the noun acts as a predicate (e.g., дом новый = the house is new). Note that Russian also has short-form adjectives (e.g., Этот фильм интересен), which are used exclusively as predicates and are common in written Russian and formal speech.