The Russian language loves to differentiate between hard and soft sounds. And guess what? They do the same with adjectives; hence soft adjectives exist!
Soft adjectives have different endings from typical hard adjectives. And there are a lot less. In fact, there are only around 40 soft adjectives in the entire Russian language, but, to our dismay, they all occur with reasonable frequency.
Most are related to time and space. And some are soft for no logical reason.
| You’re probably wondering why they are called soft adjectives. Well, I’ll try to explain. They are called soft adjectives, because they have soft endings, i.e. they end in –ий, not –ый. In the Russian, there is such a thing as hard and soft vowels. There are 10 vowels: 5 hard [а, э, и, о, у] and 5 soft [я, е, ы, ё, ю]. The vowel ы is a hard vowel, while the vowel и is a soft one, hence adjectives ending in –ый are hard and those ending in –ий are soft. Since these are soft adjectives, they must also have soft endings. |
Before proceeding, let’s review how soft adjectives agree in gender and number. We’ll only be focusing on the nominative case.
At the end of the post, you will be able to see all the other cases.
…
Let’s use the adjective синий [dark blue] as our example.
| синий [dark blue] |
| m. | f. | n. | pl. |
|---|---|---|---|
| синий | синяя | синее | синие |
Having learned these endings, let’s learn the more adjectives now!
| Soft Adjectives |
| утренний | morning |
| вечерний | evening |
| весений | spring |
| летний | summer |
| осенний | fall |
| зимний | winter |
| вчерашний | yesterday’s |
| сегодняшний | today’s |
| завтрашний | tomorrow’s |
| ранний | early |
| поздний | late |
| нынешний | present day |
| теперешний | present day |
| тогдашний | of that time |
| давний | long standing |
| древний | ancient |
| недавний | recent |
| прежний | former |
| последний | final, last |
| – | – |
| синий | dark blue |
| карий | hazel; brown |
| искренний | sincere |
| крайний | extreme |
| лишний | unnecessary |
| – | – |
| верхний | upper |
| нижний | lower |
| передний | front |
| средний | middle |
| задний | back |
| здешний | local |
| ближний | close |
| дальний | far |
| внутренний | inner, internal |
| внешний | outer, external |
| домашний | house, home |
| соседний | neighboring |
| посторонний | outside |
I tried my best to group them according to space, time and whatever else.
| In real-life contexts, let’s observe the following: Ближний Восток [Middle East], Дальний Восток [Far East], Средняя Азия [Middle Asia], Зимний Дворец [Winter Palace], etc. |
| -The Far East is the eastern-most part of Russia where many indigenous groups live. Compared to the western part of Russia, this area is far less populated and those who live here endure some of the coldest, longest and harshest winters on Earth. –Middle Asia is just under Russia. It’s where Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizstan and other former Soviet republics are. -The Winter Palace is a stunning palace located in St. Petersburg. It’s also where Peter the Great once lived. |
Some example sentences:
| Зоя искренняя и заботливая девушка. Zoya is a sincere and caring girl. |
| С раннего возраста я мечтал ездить по миру. From a young age I had dreamed of traveling the world. |
| Ты хранишь давние семейные фото? Do you keep family photos from a long time ago? |
As mentioned above, we’ll go over all the possible declensions at the end of this post.
More example sentences:
| С завтрашнего дня я буду бегать каждым утром. Starting tomorrow, I’ll run every morning. |
| Он держит свой бумажник в переднем кармане. He keeps his wallet in the front pocket. |
| Он специалист по истории России. Знает все главные события от древних времён до современности. He’s a specialist of Russian history – he knows all the main events from ancient times to modern day. |
Let’s observe the full declension of the adjective карий [hazel].
All soft adjectives follow this pattern!
| Nominative |
| m. | f. | n. | pl. |
|---|---|---|---|
| карий | каряя | карее | карие |
| Genitive |
| карего | карей | карего | карих |
| Dative |
| карему | карей | карему | карим |
| Accusative |
| карий | каряя | карее | карие |
| карего | – | карего | карих |
| Instrumental |
| карим | карей | карим | карими |
| Prepositional |
| карем | карей | карем | карих |
One more round of examples:
| Я пробежал 5 километров. Так устал, без задних ног*. I ran 5 kilometers. I’m so tired – exhausted. |
| Автобус идёт к Зимнему Дворцу. The bus is heading toward the Winter Palace. |
| Извини за отсутствие. За последнее время я была очень занята. Sorry for the absence. Lately, I’ve been very busy. |
Well, I think that was quite the post to end the year with.
This will be the final post of the year 2025.
My Slavic Studies 