ОЙ ADJECTIVES

Discover Russian adjectives ending in ОЙ, how their endings change, the spelling rule that splits their plurals between ЫЕ and ИЕ, and 10 new adjectives, including голубо́й and золото́й.

In this lesson:

Learn how the ОЙ ending changes depending on the gender
Learn the difference between ОЙ and ЫЙ adjectives
Learn the difference between ЫЕ and ИЕ plural endings
Learn 10 ОЙ adjectives

ОЙ is a masculine ending

In the last lesson, you reviewed the ЫЙ endings and learned a few new words.

In this lesson, you will learn how adjectives that end with ОЙ change their endings.

голубо́йlight blue

Голубо́й is still a masculine adjective even though it ends with ОЙ instead of ЫЙ (p.s. there are 3 masculine adjective endings in Russian: ЫЙ, ИЙ and ОЙ).

If you've already learned about possessive pronouns, you might be familiar with the ОЙ ending, like мой дом or твой компью́тер.

ОЙ adjectives are nothing special, they change their endings similarly to the ЫЙ ones. So, just learn their masculine (default) form and change them based on the noun from there.

You're so golden

Another colour that we haven’t discussed yet is золото́й.

золото́йgold

So, голубо́й and золото́й are both masculine. How do you make them neuter? For example, how would you say light blue sky (не́бо) or gold ring (кольцо́)? If you thought, голубо́е не́бо and золото́е кольцо́, you are 100% right! Just like ЫЙ changes to ОЕ, ОЙ changes to ОЕ as well!

Would you like to guess how to say light blue moon (луна́) and gold autumn (о́сень)? Did you guess голуба́я луна́ and золота́я о́сень? Amazing!

Let's summarise

Masculine adjectives that end with ОЙ change their ending to ОЕ for neuter nouns and АЯ for feminine nouns (just like ЫЙ adjectives).

ЫЙ

Adjective endings by gender and number
Group	Ending	Example
Masculine	ЫЙ	кра́сный дом
Neuter	ОЕ	кра́сное я́блоко
Feminine	АЯ	кра́сная маши́на

ОЙ

Adjective endings by gender and number
Group	Ending	Example
Masculine	ОЙ	золото́й дом
Neuter	ОЕ	золото́е я́блоко
Feminine	АЯ	золота́я маши́на

I want something big, I want something to say I'm here!

Here are 2 new ОЙ adjectives: дорого́й (“expensive”) and большо́й (“big”).

дорого́й домan expensive house
большо́й домa big house

Choose the correct ending to match each noun

0 / 5

В Росси́и есть програ́мма "Голуб огонёк".
Э́то о́чень больш и дорог дом.
На у́лице сейча́с со́лнце и голуб не́бо.
У ма́мы есть золот кольцо́ и золот брасле́т.
Кита́й – э́то больш страна́.

Let’s look at 2 more adjectives before we move on to the plural adjectives! Молодо́й means “young”. Do you remember the Russian word for “old” from the previous lesson? Yes, ста́рый! Technically, it can be used to refer to both objects and people; however, a more polite way of saying it is пожило́й (“elderly”).

молодо́й пёсa young dog
пожило́й пёсan elderly dog

Choose the correct ending to match each noun

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Пожил же́нщина гуля́ет в па́рке.
У кого́ есть голуб каранда́ш?
Э́то золот ключ.
Отку́да у тебя́ золот ка́рточка?
Пожил мужчи́на живёт оди́н.
У Мари́ны есть молод челове́к.

Plurals

If neuter and feminine endings of ОЙ adjectives are the same as ЫЙ endings, does it mean that plurals change to ЫЕ? Sort of...

голубо́й домголубы́е дома́золото́й брасле́тзолоты́е брасле́тымолодо́й челове́кмолоды́е лю́дипожило́й челове́кпожилы́е лю́ди

However,

большо́й домбольши́е дома́дорого́й домдороги́е дома́

But why?

It all depends on the last letter before the ending! Here is the rule: When making a plural for ОЙ adjectives, if the last letter before the ОЙ is (К, Г, Х, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ж), the ending is ИЕ; otherwise, it is ЫЕ.