Once you know that adjectives agree in gender, number, and case, the remaining job is mechanical: learn the actual ending for each slot. This page is the reference grid — the full declension of an adjective across all six cases, in the singular (three genders) and the plural, for both a hard-stem adjective (но́вый, "new") and a soft-stem one (после́дний, "last"). The system is far more forgiving than the noun system, because the same endings repeat across thousands of adjectives with almost no irregularity. Three labour-saving facts run through every table: masculine and neuter share their oblique forms, the feminine collapses four cases into one, and the plural ignores gender entirely.
Hard-stem declension: но́вый
The "default" adjective type, with the back vowels ы/о/у in its endings:
| Case | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | но́вый | но́вое | но́вая | но́вые |
| Genitive | но́вого | но́вого | но́вой | но́вых |
| Dative | но́вому | но́вому | но́вой | но́вым |
| Accusative | = nom. / gen. | но́вое | но́вую | = nom. / gen. |
| Instrumental | но́вым | но́вым | но́вой | но́выми |
| Prepositional | (о) но́вом | (о) но́вом | (о) но́вой | (о) но́вых |
Soft-stem declension: после́дний
Soft-stem adjectives end in -ний in the masculine nominative and replace every hard vowel with its soft partner (ы→и, о→е, у→ю):
| Case | Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | после́дний | после́днее | после́дняя | после́дние |
| Genitive | после́днего | после́днего | после́дней | после́дних |
| Dative | после́днему | после́днему | после́дней | после́дним |
| Accusative | = nom. / gen. | после́днее | после́днюю | = nom. / gen. |
| Instrumental | после́дним | после́дним | после́дней | после́дними |
| Prepositional | (о) после́днем | (о) после́днем | (о) после́дней | (о) после́дних |
Three structural shortcuts
These are the patterns that make the grid memorable rather than 24 separate facts.
Masculine and neuter share every oblique form
In all four oblique cases — genitive, dative, instrumental, prepositional — masculine and neuter are identical: но́вого, но́вому, но́вым, но́вом for both. They differ in only two slots: the nominative (но́вый vs но́вое) and the accusative (where neuter copies its nominative но́вое, while the masculine follows the animacy rule below).
Мы говори́ли о но́вом фи́льме и о но́вом кафе́.
We talked about the new film and the new café. — фильм (masc.) and кафе́ (neut.) both take the prepositional но́вом.
The feminine collapses four cases into one -ой/-ей
The feminine singular is the easiest column in Russian: the genitive, dative, instrumental, and prepositional are all the same form, -ой (hard) or -ей (soft). Only the nominative (-ая/-яя) and the accusative (-ую/-юю) stand apart.
Я ду́маю о но́вой рабо́те, мечта́ю о но́вой рабо́те, дово́лен но́вой рабо́той.
I'm thinking about a new job, dreaming of a new job, happy with a new job. — prepositional, prepositional, and instrumental all use но́вой.
The plural ignores gender
In the plural there is one set of endings for all three genders: -ые/-ие (nom.), -ых/-их (gen./prep.), -ым/-им (dat.), -ыми/-ими (instr.). The accusative follows animacy, exactly as in the masculine singular.
В магази́не мно́го но́вых книг и но́вых журна́лов.
There are lots of new books and new magazines in the shop. — genitive plural но́вых for both a feminine and a masculine noun.
The masculine accusative: the animacy split
The one genuinely two-way slot is the masculine (and plural) accusative. The rule mirrors the noun animacy rule:
- Inanimate noun → accusative looks like the nominative: но́вый стол ("a new table").
- Animate noun (person/animal) → accusative looks like the genitive: но́вого студе́нта ("a new student").
The adjective copies whichever case its noun copies. This holds for the plural too: но́вые столы́ (inanimate) but но́вых студе́нтов (animate).
Я купи́л но́вый стол.
I bought a new table. — стол is inanimate, so the masc. accusative = nominative но́вый.
Я встре́тил но́вого студе́нта.
I met a new student. — студе́нт is animate, so the masc. accusative = genitive но́вого.
Они́ при́няли но́вых сотру́дников.
They hired new employees. — animate plural, so the accusative = genitive plural но́вых.
The -ого/-его spelling trap: written г, spoken /v/
This catches every learner and never stops being odd. The masculine/neuter genitive ending is written -ого / -его, but the г is pronounced /v/. So но́вого sounds like nóvava, and после́днего sounds like poslédnyeva. The same г-as-/v/ applies to the third-person possessive его́ ("his," pronounced yevó) and to сего́дня ("today," sevódnya). There is no logic to recover here — it is a frozen historical spelling. You write г and you say /v/.
У но́вого сосе́да больша́я соба́ка.
The new neighbour has a big dog. — но́вого is said 'nóvava': written г, spoken /v/.
A note on spelling rules in the endings
When an adjective stem ends in a velar (г, к, х) or a hushing consonant (ж, ш, ч, щ), Russian spelling rules can override the "expected" vowel. After these consonants you cannot write ы, so ру́сский ("Russian") has ру́сские, not ру́ссый, and хоро́ший ("good") has хоро́шего with е, not хоро́шого, because an unstressed о cannot follow a hushing consonant. These adjectives still decline like но́вый or после́дний in structure — only the vowel letter shifts to satisfy orthography. The full set of these constraints is on spelling rules in endings.
Я чита́ю хоро́шую кни́гу о ру́сских города́х.
I'm reading a good book about Russian cities. — хоро́шую (fem. acc.) and ру́сских (prep. pl.) follow the spelling rules but the same paradigm.
Common Mistakes
❌ Я встре́тил но́вый студе́нта.
Incorrect — студе́нт is animate, so the masculine accusative adjective must take the genitive form но́вого.
✅ Я встре́тил но́вого студе́нта.
I met a new student.
❌ Мы живём в но́вой до́ме.
Incorrect — дом is masculine; -ой is the feminine ending. The masc. prepositional is но́вом.
✅ Мы живём в но́вом до́ме.
We live in a new house.
❌ Он дово́лен но́вым маши́ной.
Incorrect — маши́на is feminine; -ым is the masc./neut. instrumental. The feminine instrumental is но́вой.
✅ Он дово́лен но́вой маши́ной.
He's happy with the new car.
❌ кни́га о после́дных собы́тиях
Incorrect — после́дний is soft-stem, so the prepositional plural is после́дних with -их, not -ых.
✅ кни́га о после́дних собы́тиях
a book about recent events
Key Takeaways
- Masculine and neuter share all four oblique forms (gen -ого/-его, dat -ому/-ему, instr -ым/-им, prep -ом/-ем); they differ only in the nominative and accusative.
- The feminine collapses gen = dat = instr = prep into one form, -ой (hard) / -ей (soft); the accusative alone is distinct, -ую/-юю.
- The plural ignores gender: -ые/-ие (nom.), -ых/-их (gen./prep.), -ым/-им (dat.), -ыми/-ими (instr.).
- The masculine and plural accusative split by animacy: like the nominative for inanimates (но́вый стол), like the genitive for animates (но́вого студе́нта).
- Soft stems are hard stems with a vowel swap: ы→и, о→е, у→ю (после́дний mirrors но́вый).
- -ого/-его is written with г but pronounced /v/: но́вого = "nóvava".
Now practice Russian
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Start learning Russian→Related Topics
- Adjective Agreement: The BasicsA1 — Russian adjectives agree with their noun in gender, number, AND case. In the nominative the endings are masculine -ый/-ий/-ой (но́вый, ма́ленький, большо́й), feminine -ая/-яя (но́вая, после́дняя), neuter -ое/-ее (но́вое, после́днее), and plural -ые/-ие (но́вые) for all genders. So 'new' is но́вый дом, но́вая маши́на, но́вое окно́, but но́вые кни́ги. Adjectives also change for case (в но́вом до́ме) and normally come BEFORE the noun, as in English.
- Hard-Stem and Soft-Stem AdjectivesA2 — Russian adjectives fall into two main declension patterns. Hard-stem adjectives (the big majority: но́вый, кра́сный, ста́рый) take -ый/-ая/-ое/-ые; soft-stem adjectives (the small -ний family: после́дний, си́ний, дома́шний, ле́тний) take -ий/-яя/-ее/-ие. Two 'mixed' groups follow the hard pattern but bend it to spelling rules: velar stems (ма́ленький, ру́сский, дорого́й) and hushing stems (хоро́ший, большо́й) write -ий/-его where a plain hard stem would write -ый/-ого. The stressed-ending type (большо́й, молодо́й) keeps -о́й in the masculine.
- Spelling Rules in Noun EndingsA2 — Two orthographic rules silently reshape the case endings you predict: after к г х ж ш щ ч you write и not ы (so кни́га → кни́ги, never *кни́гы), and after ж ш щ ч ц an unstressed ending vowel is written е not о (so му́ж → му́жем, but a stressed one stays о: оте́ц → отцо́м); treat them as an automatic filter applied after you choose the ending, never as exceptions to learn case by case.
- The Animacy Rule in the AccusativeA2 — The single rule that shapes the Russian accusative: animate objects (people, animals) copy the genitive, inanimate objects (things) copy the nominative. It bites in exactly two places — the masculine singular (ви́жу стол vs ви́жу студе́нта) and the plural of every gender (ви́жу столы́ vs ви́жу студе́нтов/же́нщин/дете́й). Feminine -а/-я singulars are the exception: they take -у/-ю either way. A few nouns are grammatically animate against common sense (ку́кла, ферзь, мертве́ц).