-í / -é

Plural Adjectives for Men and Others

Level 3

Men: mladí muži. Everyone and everything else: mladé ženy, nové autá.

How It Works

Hard adjectives like pekný

  • men: -í: mladí muži, slovenskí študenti, dobrí priatelia
  • others: -é: mladé ženy, nové autá, veľké domy

Unlike nouns, adjectives do not change k to c: the noun is Slováci, but the adjective is slovenskí.

After a long syllable

The rhythmic law shortens the ending after a long syllable: krásny → krásni muži, krásne ženy; múdry → múdri študenti. See The Rhythmic Law.

Soft adjectives like cudzí

cudzí ľudia (men), cudzie mestá (others). See Soft Adjectives Like cudzí.

Who counts as men?

  • masculine nouns for people: muži, študenti, rodičia, ľudia
  • mixed groups: Peter a Jana sú unavení.
  • not animals with thing-like plurals: veľké psy (but veľkí psi with the person-like plural)

Same rule after byť. Chlapci sú unavení. Dievčatá sú unavené. The pointing words follow the same split: tí / tie, moji / moje. See Plural Words for Men and Others.

Spelling. -ý is the masculine singular, so writing slovenský študenti is a common spelling error. The plural for men is always -í or -i.

Examples (6)

  1. Tí mladí muži sú bratia.

    Those young men are brothers.

  2. Slovenskí hokejisti vyhrali.

    The Slovak hockey players won.

    slovenskí keeps k. Only nouns change k to c.

  3. Mladé ženy sedia v kaviarni.

    Young women are sitting in the café.

  4. Nové autá sú drahé.

    New cars are expensive.

  5. Chlapci sú unavení a dievčatá sú unavené.

    The boys are tired and the girls are tired.

    After byť the adjective still follows the -í / -é rule.

  6. Moji rodičia sú veľmi milí.

    My parents are very kind.

    rodičia is a masculine plural for people, even though it includes a mother.

Common Mistakes

  • Writing the singular -ý instead of the plural -í.

    Slovenský študenti sú tu.
    Slovenskí študenti sú tu.

    Slovenský is the singular form. Describing several men, the adjective ends in -í.

  • Using the -í form for things.

    Tie knihy sú noví.
    Tie knihy sú nové.

    Knihy are not men, so the adjective ends in -é.

  • Keeping a long ending after a long syllable.

    krásní muži
    krásni muži

    Krásny already has a long á, so the rhythmic law shortens the ending: krásni, krásne.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

-í / -éLevel 3Plural Adjectives for Men and Others

Learn This First

Before Plural Adjectives for Men and Others, learn Hard Adjectives Like pekný and Plural of Nouns for Men. Plural adjectives use the same stem as pekný. -í is used with men and -é with all other plurals.

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Patterns that build on this one.