An adjective in Russian is a part of speech, the main function of which is the designation of a non-procedural attribute of an object (as opposed to a participle, which designates a sign of an object by action). Adjectives can change according to cases and numbers, and in the singular form - also according to gender, and are also classified according to special lexical and grammatical groups - categories. Thus, the ranks of adjectives are three large groups that combine words that are similar in meaning and in the way of denoting an attribute of an object. Adjectives belonging to each of the categories have their own characteristics of change and use. We will talk about this in more detail later, and below is a summary table.
Digits of adjectives
Discharge |
Hue value |
Degree of comparison |
Short form |
Combination with the adverb "very" |
Examples |
| Quality | A sign of an object from the side of its quality, that is, a sign can manifest itself in one way or another | + | + | + | Good, kind, easy, beautiful, poor, old |
| Relative | A sign of an object, denoting a relationship to a place, time, material, etc., that is, constant, unchanging | - | - | - | Evening (hours), iron (rod), milk (soup), continental (climate) |
| Possessive | A sign of an object as a designation of belonging to something or someone | - | - | - | Wolf (skin), girlish (honor), grandfathers (jacket) |
Qualitative adjectives: features of meaning, modification and use
Quality adjectives are a lexical and grammatical category that combines words denoting the quality of an object, that is, a sign that can manifest itself to one degree or another, to a greater or lesser extent, for example: expensive doll, beautiful girl, poor artist, talented actor. Qualitative adjectives, in addition to changing in cases, genders and numbers, are also able to form short forms, degrees of comparison and be combined with the adverb "very". Other categories of adjectives (relative andpossessive) do not have these characteristics.
Education of short forms
The short form is formed from the full form and has a close semantic connection with it: close - close, tight, tight; beautiful - beautiful, beautiful, beautiful; harmful - harmful, harmful, harmful. There are a number of adjectives that once had both full and short forms in Russian, but today they are used only in short forms, for example: glad, love, much, should and others.
It is noteworthy that historically it is the short form of the adjective that is considered the basic, initial, and at the initial stages of the development of the language, the full form was formed from the short one. Today, when forming a short form, alternation or loss of vowels can be observed: green - green, green, green; sharp - sharp, cutting, cutting. Short form adjectives change by number and gender (singular), but do not decline. In a sentence, as a rule, they perform the function of a predicate: In this dress, the Countess was unusually beautiful.
Formation of degrees of comparison
Comparative and superlative degrees of comparison are an illustration of how brightly and fully this quality is expressed in the subject: dad is good - better - best; a talented artist - more talented than another - the most talented. Recall that other categories of adjectives designate the attribute of an object as constant, not capable of gradation.
Degrees of comparison can be formed both synthetically - suffixally(expensive - more expensive, beautiful - most beautiful), and analytically - with the help of special words:
- comparative - more, less + initial form of adjective (more complex, less interesting);
- excellent - most, least, most + initial form of adjective (most attractive, most cheerful) or all, all + simple comparative adjective (sings best, most appreciated).
The words of this part of speech in a synthetic comparative form do not change in cases, numbers and genders and do not agree with the noun, the sign of which they designate. Their syntactic function in a sentence is the nominal part of the compound nominal predicate (An old friend is better than two new ones).
For most quality adjectives, simple and compound forms of degrees of comparison can exist in parallel, but there are words that in modern language do not form a simple comparative degree: mass, early, timid and others.
Another nuance that you need to pay attention to is the formation of degrees of comparison from different bases, for example: good - better, bad - worse, small - less.
From adjectives in a comparative and superlative degree, one should distinguish words-manifestations of a subjective assessment, which do not indicate the degree of manifestation of a given feature in a particular situation, but the assessment of this feature by the speaker: a tiny hand, a pretty face, big paws. Adjectives with suffixes -ovat -/-evat - should not be included in this group: such words denote a non-subjective assessmentfeature, but the objective incompleteness of its manifestation, for example: whitish haze, greenish tint.
Relative adjectives
If we compare the categories of nouns and adjectives, we can draw the following parallel: real nouns denote a substance, material, and relative adjectives - a sign in relation to this substance, material: wood - wood, rice - rice, ice - ice. However, the sign indicated by the adjectives of this group can refer not only to the material, but also to the place, time, etc., for example: evening, summer, foreign, domestic, coastal. This sign appears constantly and cannot be expressed to a greater or lesser extent, therefore relative adjectives are unable to form degrees of comparison.
Possessive adjectives
This category combines adjectives answering the question whose? and denoting that the item belongs to someone or something: dad's friend, wolf's fang, sheep's wool, grandfather's cap.
Ranks of adjectives: the use of words in a figurative sense
To increase the expressiveness of speech, in some cases adjectives from one category can be used in the meaning of words from another category, for example: iron mug - iron nerves, wolf footprint - wolf look, golden chain - golden hands. In this regard, the category of the adjective is determined not only taking into account general formal indicators, but alsoclose attention to context.
