Describing Things: Big, Small, Good, Bad | Russian Grammar

Once you can name things in Russian, you'll want to describe them: a big house, a good book, a new car. This page gives you eight everyday adjectives and the one skill they all require — making the adjective match the noun. In English an adjective never changes: "big" is "big" whether it's a big house or big books. In Russian the adjective puts on a different ending depending on the noun's gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter) and on whether it's plural. It sounds like a lot, but it's really just four endings on the same word, and after a little practice your ear will do it for you.

Eight adjectives to start with

Here are your first describing words, in the masculine (dictionary) form. Each pair is an opposite, which makes them easy to remember together.

Russian	English
большо́й	big
ма́ленький	small, little
хоро́ший	good
плохо́й	bad
но́вый	new
ста́рый	old
краси́вый	beautiful, pretty
интере́сный	interesting

Making the adjective match the noun

A Russian noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter (if you're unsure how to tell, see noun gender). The adjective takes a different ending for each gender, and a fourth ending for the plural. Watch what happens to большо́й ("big") in front of four different nouns:

Gender / number	Ending	Example	English
Masculine	-ой / -ый / -ий	большо́й дом	a big house
Feminine	-ая	больша́я маши́на	a big car
Neuter	-ое	большо́е окно́	a big window
Plural (any gender)	-ые / -ие	больши́е дома́	big houses

The endings line up nicely with the noun's own ending most of the time: feminine nouns usually end in -а/-я and take the -ая adjective; neuter nouns usually end in -о/-е and take the -ое adjective; plurals take a plural adjective. So the adjective tends to "rhyme" with its noun — больша́я маши́на, большо́е окно́ — which is a handy memory aid.

У нас большо́й дом.

We have a big house. — дом is masculine, so большо́й.

Э́то о́чень краси́вая маши́на.

That's a really beautiful car. — маши́на is feminine, so краси́вая.

Како́е ста́рое окно́!

What an old window! — окно́ is neuter, so ста́рое.

Здесь больши́е, ста́рые дома́.

There are big, old buildings here. — дома́ is plural, so both adjectives take the plural: больши́е, ста́рые.

💡

Once a noun is plural, you can forget its gender for the adjective — all three genders use the same plural ending. Больши́е дома́ (masc.), больши́е маши́ны (fem.), and больши́е о́кна (neut.) all use больши́е. That's one rule fewer to worry about.

"The house is big" — adjective after the noun

Russian usually has no word for "is" in the present tense. So to say "The house is big," you just put the noun and the adjective together: Дом большо́й. The adjective still matches the noun's gender — exactly the same endings as before, just in a different position.

Дом большо́й, а маши́на ма́ленькая.

The house is big, but the car is small. — большо́й matches дом (masc.), ма́ленькая matches маши́на (fem.).

Э́та кни́га о́чень интере́сная.

This book is very interesting. — кни́га is feminine, so интере́сная, whether before the noun or as 'is'.

So whether the adjective comes before the noun (большо́й дом) or after it as a predicate (Дом большо́й), the rule is identical: match the gender. Position doesn't change the ending.

The spelling rule behind хоро́ший

You may have noticed that "good" is хоро́ший, not хоро́ный — it ends in -ий, not -ый, and the feminine is хоро́шая, not хоро́ная. This isn't random. After the letters ж, ш, ч, щ (and after к, г, х), Russian spelling does not allow the letter ы; you must write и instead. Since хоро́ший ends in ш, its masculine ending becomes -ий, and its plural is хоро́шие (not *хоро́шые). The adjective ма́ленький behaves the same way because its stem ends in к: ма́ленький, ма́ленькая, ма́ленькое, ма́ленькие. This "no ы after ж/ш/ч/щ/к/г/х" rule is one of the most important spelling rules in all of Russian, and it will explain dozens of endings later on.

Э́то хоро́шая иде́я!

That's a good idea! — хоро́шая, not *хоро́ная: the ш forces и/я.

У меня́ есть ма́ленькая соба́ка.

I have a little dog. — ма́ленькая; the stem ends in к, so it follows the same soft pattern.

The full story of these "soft" and "stressed" endings — why большо́й takes -ой while но́вый takes -ый — is on the agreement overview and the hard/soft-stems page. For now, just learn each adjective with the ending you see in the table.

Common Mistakes

❌ большо́й маши́на

Incorrect — маши́на is feminine, so the adjective must be больша́я.

✅ больша́я маши́на

a big car

❌ ста́рый окно́

Incorrect — окно́ is neuter, so the adjective is ста́рое, not the masculine ста́рый.

✅ ста́рое окно́

an old window

❌ хоро́ный фильм

Incorrect — 'good' is хоро́ший; after ш you cannot write ы, so the ending is -ий.

✅ хоро́ший фильм

a good film

❌ краси́вая дома́

Incorrect — дома́ is plural; use the plural adjective краси́вые, not the feminine singular краси́вая.

✅ краси́вые дома́

beautiful buildings

Key Takeaways

A Russian adjective changes its ending to match the noun's gender and number — there's no single frozen form.
Endings: masculine большо́й (-ой/-ый/-ий), feminine больша́я (-ая), neuter большо́е (-ое), plural больши́е (-ые/-ие).
The adjective usually "rhymes" with its noun: больша́я маши́на, большо́е окно́.
In the plural, gender no longer matters — one ending covers all three.
The endings are the same before the noun (большо́й дом) and after it as "is" (Дом большо́й).
After ж, ш, ч, щ, к, г, х you must write и, never ы — that's why it's хоро́ший and ма́ленький, not хоро́ный, ма́ленькый.

Now practice Russian

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Russian→