ИЙ adjectives

Do you remember these letters: К, Г, Х, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ж? There is an important Russian spelling rule: never write Ы after these letters. Instead, use И. As a result, there are some masculine adjectives that end in -ий. So, let’s talk about them!

• ру́сский язы́кRussian language
• ма́ленький домa small house

Ру́сский (“Russian”) and ма́ленький (“small”) are both masculine adjectives. The feminine endings are consistent with the ones you have already learnt! So, the feminine ending is -ая.

ру́сский язы́к → ру́сская культу́ра

ма́ленький ма́льчик → ма́ленькая де́вочка

So far, so good?

• гро́мкая вечери́нкаa loud party
• ти́хая библиоте́каa quiet library

Let’s add two more adjectives before we practise: ти́хий (“quiet”) and гро́мкий (“loud”).

Let’s look at another adjective:

• англи́йский язы́кEnglish language

Англи́йский – English; англи́йский язы́к – English language; англи́йская му́зыка – English culture and англи́йское пи́во – English beer! Yes! There is nothing new so far! The neuter ending is -ое, just like you have already learnt.

And what about the plural? Which one is correct: англи́йские писа́тели or англи́йскые писа́тели? The first one is correct!

• стро́гий учительa strict teacher

Cтро́гий means "strict".

Now let’s practise all four forms.

You might think that this is all very straightforward for Russian... But actually, there is a little “trick” when we use these adjectives with neuter nouns! Let’s look at our adjectives:

• ру́ссКий

• англи́йсКий

• ма́леньКий

• гро́мКий

• стро́Гий

• ти́Хий

These adjectives have the consonants К, Г, Х before the -ий ending. For these adjectives, the neuter ending is the familiar -ое:

ма́леньк*ий → ма́ленькое*

гро́мк*ий → гро́мкое*

ти́х*ий → ти́хое*

However, adjectives that have the consonants Ч, Ш, Щ, Ж before the -ий ending take a different neuter ending.

Some -ий adjectives have Ч, Ш, Щ or Ж before the ending. With these adjectives, the neuter ending is -ее, not -ое.

The feminine and plural endings stay the same: -ая for feminine and -ие for plural

Let's look at хоро́ший ("good").

Don't forget: хоро́ший → хоро́шее. Not хоро́шое!

• све́жийfresh
• бу́дущийfuture
• горя́чийhot

К, Г, Х + ий → -ая → -ое → -ие

Ч, Ш, Щ, Ж + ий → -ая → -ее → -ие

Let's update the table as well!