Unit 4: A typical day 57
type of construction: Де�вушка голодна� ‘The girl is hungry’, i.e. where
the verb ‘to be’ comes between the noun (or pronoun) and adjective.
Contrast the long adjective which may be used in both the above type of
construction and in constructions without the verb ‘to be’ between noun
and adjective:
Де�вушка голо�днaя
‘The girl is hungry’.
Го л о�дная де�вушкa обе�дает в кафе�
‘The hungry girl is having dinner in the cafe’.
Not all adjectives have a short form. Adjectives without a short form
include those ending in -ский and all soft adjectives.
To form a short adjective, remove the ending -ый or -ий from
the long adjective. This will give you the masculine short form. For
the feminine form add -a, for the neuter add -о and for the plural
add -ы.
Гото�вый ‘ready’; short forms гото�в, гото�ва, гото�во, гото�вы:
Обе�д гото�в Де�вyшка гото�ва
‘Dinner is ready’. ‘The girl is ready’.
Мя�со гото�во Они� гото�вы
‘The meat is ready’. ‘They are ready’.
Note that the plural form is used with вы even when referring to one
person:
Вы гото�вы?
‘Are you ready?’If the masculine form ends in two consonants, a vowel is sometimes
inserted between them. This vowel is only present in the masculine.
Before the consonant н the vowel is usually e. Го л о�дный ‘hungry’;
short forms го�лоден, голодна�, го�лодно, го�лодны:
Oн го�лоден Oна� голодна�
‘He is hungry’. ‘She is hungry’.Упражне�ние 5
Ask whether (ры�ба, мя�со, чай, макаро�ны, бифште�кс, ко�фе,
бyтербpо�ды, Мари�на, Ми�шa) are ‘ready’. Reply first in the affirmative
and then in the negative.