Spelling rules (#0028)

After the letters к, г, х, ч, ж, ш, щ instead of ы write и

After the letters к, г, х, ч, ж, ш, щ, ц instead of ю write у, and instead of я write а

After the letters ч, ж, ш, щ, ц instead of unstressed o write e

When replacing -ь, -й, -я, always use -и, never -ы.

These letters follow soft consonants: я, е, ё, ю, и, ь

In Russian grammar, there are many instances when you will need to drop as letter before you add another letter. The general rule is, if you drop a letter from the hard series vowels (а, э, о, у, ы), you add a letter from the hard series vowels, and if you drop a letter from the soft series vowels (я, е, ё, ю, и, ь), you add a letter from the soft series vowels.

Let's look at the example for forming plurals of feminine nouns in Russian.

Feminine nouns in Russian end in -а (hard series), or -я (soft series). The plural endings for feminine nouns in Russian are -ы (hard series) or -и (soft series). So, if the noun ends in -а (hard series), to form the plural we drop that letter and add the letter -ы (hard series): газета - газеты. If the noun ends in -я (soft series), we drop that letter and add the letter -и (soft series): тётя - тёти.

The spelling rules always take precedence over any other rule!

Let's look at an example. The word книга ends in a the hard series vowel -а, and you would expect the plural ending to be -ы, since it is a hard series vowel as well. However, Spelling Rule 1 takes precedence, and therefore the noun will take the plural ending -и.