Adjectives. Short forms

  1. Short forms of adjectives are formed by dropping the long form (two letter) ending of the adjective, and adding the appropriate gender ending.
    longshort
    здоровыйздоров
    хорошийхорош
    готовыйготов
  2. The resulting form will be masculine. To get the feminine, neuter and plural forms, you would add the appropriate one letter gender ending.
  3. When forming short form adjectives you should always obey the spelling rules.
  4. Masculine forms of short adjectives that end in a consonant cluster will have a fill vowel.
    согласный - согласен - согласна
  5. Short form adjectives in Russian are used primarily as predicates: they go with the verb 'to be', rather than with a noun. Compare the two sentences:
    This man is interesting.
    Этот человек интересен.
    This interesting man is my uncle.
    Этот интересный человек мой дядя.
  6. Generally speaking, short form adjectives describe a temporary state (sick, ready).
    Сегодня я болен. Today I'm sick
    Они ещё не готовы. They are still not ready.

Copyright ©. George Mitrevski. Auburn University. e-mail:mitrege@auburn.edu