Colloquial Russian

Unit 1: What’s your name? 19

Possessive adjectives

The words for ‘my’ and ‘your’ change according to the gender of the
nouns they are describing: мой отéц ‘my father’; моя� мать ‘my
mother’; моё у�тро ‘my morning’. The form мой is used with a mas-
culine noun, the form моя� with a feminine noun and the form мoё
with a neuter noun. Ваш а�дрес ‘your address’; ва�ша фами�лия; ‘your
surname’; ва�ше у�тро ‘your morning’. The form ваш is used with a
masculine noun, the form ва�ша with a feminine noun and the form
ва�ше with a neuter noun.

Упражнéние 3 / Exercise 3 (Audio 1.12)

Using the following words, ask a question and reply in the affirmative.

For example:

Э�то ва�ша фами�лия? Да, э�то моя� фами�лия.

1 маши�на

2 журна�л

3 гости�ница

4 а�дрес

5 отéц

6 мать

7 самолёт

Adjectives

All adjectives change their endings according to the gender of the
nouns they are describing: интерéсный журна�л ‘interesting maga-
zine’; интерéсная профéссия ‘interesting profession’; интерéсное
у�тро ‘interesting morning’. The ending -ый is used when the noun it
describes is masculine, the ending -ая when the noun is feminine and
the ending -оe when it is neuter.
Note these other examples: Моско�вский yниверсите�т ‘Moscow
University’; англи�йский бизнесме�н ‘English businessman’; ру�сская
фами�лия ‘Russian surname’. In Mоско�вский and англи�йский the
ending is -ий rather than the regular -ый ending because it is a rule of
Russian spelling that ы is replaced by и after к.
The word ру�сская as well as being the feminine form of the adjec-
tive ‘Russian’ can also mean ‘a Russian woman’. Similarly ру�cский, the
masculine form, can also mean ‘a Russian man’.