A significant part of Russian spelling is occupied by the rules of hyphenated, separate and continuous spelling of word forms. Compound adjectives, spelling examples of which will be given in the article, illustrate the spelling rules of the Russian language.
Compound word - what is it?
In the lexical arsenal of the Russian language there are simple words consisting of one root, one stem (blue, young, red, autumn). If a word consists of several bases or parts of bases, then it is considered complex. Compound adjectives, examples of which are given in the tables below, consist of two roots.
Compound word: ways of education
Complex words are formed in three main ways: addition, fusion, abbreviation.
| Method | Description | Compound nouns and compound adjectives examples |
| Addition | Morphological method of word formation, in which a compound wordformed by merging stems with a vowel (connecting vowel O follows hard consonants, vowel E follows soft ones). | woolweaving, carnivorous, bloody, long-jet |
| Fusion | Lexico-syntactic method: a whole combination of words without connecting vowels merges into a complex one. | two-story (of two floors), forty days (of forty days), crazy (crazy) |
| Abbreviation | Conditionally phonetic method: a compound word (noun) is formed from combinations of words, but, unlike fusion, only parts of the bases are connected: syllables, letters. | department store, salary, KAMAZ, NATO, USE |
Compound adjectives: continuous spelling
The spelling of complex adjectives follows a set of spelling rules, illustrated by their compound adjective names, examples of which are given in the tables below.
In this case, complex adjectives can be written with a hyphen and together or be part of a phrase where the adjective is not part of a compound word.
| Rule | Compound adjective examples | |
| Together | ||
| 1 | When forming a compound adjective from a compound noun, which is spelled together. | oil pipeline - oil pipeline, steamship - steamboat |
| 2 | When forming a compound adjectivefrom a subordinate combination of words, including from the phrases "noun + adjective", naming geographical objects. | ski - alpine skiing, natural science - natural sciences, average daily - average per day; Lysogorsky - Bald Mountains, Yagodnopoliansky - Yagodnaya Polyana |
| 3 | If the adjective designates a scientific term or is a special word. | lepidoptera, viviparous, mammals, milk cannery, bakery, exploration |
| 4 | If the first part of the compound word is as follows: high-, higher-, deep-, thick-, cool-, large-, light-, little-, small-, many-, low-, lower-, sharp-, flat, strong, weak, thick, thin, hard, heavy, narrow, wide. If there are explanatory words for such elements, then the spelling is separate. | little studied (but: little studied by students), difficult to eliminate (but: difficult to excrete from the body), widely known (widely known abroad) |
| 5 | If the first part of a compound word is common-, upper-, middle-, lower-, ancient-, early-, late-. | Common, Central Russian, Lower Volga, Old English, Early Ripe, Late Scythian |
Compound adjectives: hyphenated
A lot of adjectives are written semi-continuously. Hyphen rules and compound adjectives (examples) are given in the table below.
| Rule | Hyphenated Compound Adjectives Examples | |
| Through a hyphen | ||
| 1 | When forming a compound adjective from a compound noun written with a hyphen. | North-Western - North-West, Social Democratic - Social Democracy, Issyk-Kul - Issyk-Kul (but: Trans-Issyk-Kul, as there is a prefix) |
| 2 | If the adjective is formed from two proper names, for example, from two surnames or a given name and a surname. Eastern surnames are an exception. | Pushkin-Gogol, Leo-Tolstoy, Jules-Vernovsky (but: Dzhekichan, Ho Chi Minh) |
| 3 | If the adjective is formed by merging several equal words (you can put a union between them and or but). | convex-concave, apple-plum, Russian-Chinese, expressive-emotional |
| 4 | If the adjective is formed by merging several equal but heterogeneous words. | official business, electronic computing, comparative historical |
| 5 | If the first part of a compound word is military, folk, mass, educational, scientific. | military legal, people's liberation, mass sports, educational and methodological, scientific and technical |
| 6 | If the adjective reflects a shade of color. | gray green, yellow blue, deep black |
| 7 | Complex place-name adjectives. | West Korean, North Ossetian, South Ural |
Phrase"adverb+adjective"
Compound words - adjectives, examples of which are given above, can be difficult to distinguish from similar phrases.
So, moral and ethical is an adjective, and morally well-mannered is a phrase, where you can ask the question to an adverb: "In what respect?"
Spelling complex adjectives: examples from literature
Compound adjectives are widely used in works of fiction.
They allow you to accurately describe the object, highlight it from the environment; they bring uniqueness to the text. For example, in the stories of I. A. Bunin, there are many individual epithets - complex adjectives: smoky-purple distance, cloudy-milky fog, dull-pale foliage, gray-winged eagles, a cheeky-beautiful woman, light golden maples, a thin-broad-shouldered doctor, metallic -voiced screams and others.
