Chameleons! Russian modifiers change their forms to suit their nouns

Remember gender! All nouns have a grammatical gender or number: masculine (свитер), feminine (рубашка), neuter (платье), plural (брюки). We know the gender because the endings tell us. All nouns also “tell us” about their function (cases) Nouns in your vocabulary list or in a dictionary, are in the nominative, the “subject case.” The gender of nouns is FIXED, it never changes. Plurals are “indiscriminate”—no gender. Plural is plural!

Modifiers Modifiers are adjectives (big green), possessives (my) or demonstratives (this, that) They connect to a noun… they modify it! Modifiers reflect the gender/number and function (case) of the noun they modify. They are like chameleons: They change their endings to suit their context. This is true for all the European languages (except English): las muchachas bonitas!

Long and short modifiers Short modifiers take “short” endings, and long modifiers take “long” endings. – The short modifiers are the possessives like мой, твой, наш, forms of этот and тот (demonstratives, “this” and “that”), and the interrogative чей – Long modifiers are adjectives like большой, красивый, новый, старый.

The endings for modifiers are like the endings for nouns, only more so! The “short” modifier endings are essentially the same for modifiers as nouns: моя рубашка (feminine –a) твоё платье (neuter –o) твои ботинки (plural –ы) мой галстук (masculine has nothing ø) Don’t get distracted by the vowels! Remember your DRUNK MONKS—there are two graphemes (letters) for each phoneme!

Lest you forget… Drunk monks! (I want to drink beer!) 7 letters! (click it!) 5 letters! (click it!) The unholy triumvirate of DOOOOOЁЕЁM (click it!) After КГХШЩЖЧ (the hushers and the velars), never write –ы always writer -и After ШЩЧЖЦ (the hushers and the traitor), never write an unaccented -o always writer -e Just remember that E, O, Ё all represent the same underlying sound (o) and grammatical value (neuter).

Long modifiers are “double” You can think of the long modifier endings as “double” the short ones short long -а -ая (two a’s) -о -ое (two o’s) -ы -ые (two “eeee” sounds) -ø -ый (well, it ends in a consonant!)

Examples… Это моя хорошая новая рубашка. – Listen to it! – The “a” is repeated because рубашка is feminine Вот твоё новое пальто! – Listen to it! – The “o” is repeated (DOOOOOOOOM) Где наши старые ботинки? – Listen to it! – The и is repeated (7 letters!) Это ваш чёрный свитер. – Listen to it! – Notice that NOTHING is repeated! Zero endings!

Bolshoi rule! the BIG RULE! Bolshoi Rule! Ой ой ой! Masculine adjectives that are stressed on their ending are written –óй not –ый: большóй, молодóй, голубóй

Oh no! Watch your o’s! Большóй! – Because of the Bolshoi Rule! Хорóшее! – You didn’t forget your 5-letter rule, right?