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Chameleons! Russian modifiers change their forms to suit their nouns

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Remember gender! All nouns have a grammatical gender or number: masculine (), feminine (), neuter (), plural (). We know the gender because the endings tell us. All nouns also tell us about their function (cases) Nouns in your vocabulary list or in a dictionary, are in the nominative, the subject case. The gender of nouns is FIXED, it never changes. Plurals are indiscriminateno gender. Plural is plural!

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Modifiers Modifiers are adjectives (big green), possessives (my) or demonstratives (this, that) They connect to a noun they modify it! Modifiers reflect the gender/number and function (case) of the noun they modify. They are like chameleons: They change their endings to suit their context. This is true for all the European languages (except English): las muchachas bonitas!

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Long and short modifiers Short modifiers take short endings, and long modifiers take long endings. The short modifiers are the possessives like , , , forms of and (demonstratives, this and that), and the interrogative Long modifiers are adjectives like , , , .

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The endings for modifiers are like the endings for nouns, only more so! The short modifier endings are essentially the same for modifiers as nouns: (feminine a) (neuter o) (plural ) (masculine has nothing ) Dont get distracted by the vowels! Remember your DRUNK MONKSthere are two graphemes (letters) for each phoneme!

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Lest you forget Drunk monks! (I want to drink beer!) 7 letters! (click it!) 5 letters! (click it!) The unholy triumvirate of DOOOOOM (click it!) After (the hushers and the velars), never write always writer - After (the hushers and the traitor), never write an unaccented -o always writer -e Just remember that E, O, all represent the same underlying sound (o) and grammatical value (neuter).

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Long modifiers are double You can think of the long modifier endings as double the short ones short long - - (two as) - - (two os) - - (two eeee sounds) - - (well, it ends in a consonant!)

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Examples . Listen to it! The a is repeated because is feminine ! Listen to it! The o is repeated (DOOOOOOOOM) ? Listen to it! The is repeated (7 letters!) . Listen to it! Notice that NOTHING is repeated! Zero endings!

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Bolshoi rule! the BIG RULE! Bolshoi Rule! ! Masculine adjectives that are stressed on their ending are written o not : o, o, o

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Oh no! Watch your os! o! Because of the Bolshoi Rule! o! You didnt forget your 5-letter rule, right?