Жареный картофель вкусный.

Fried potatoes are tasty.

Breakdown of Жареный картофель вкусный.

• вкусный: tasty
• картофель: the potato
• жареный: fried

Questions & Answers about Жареный картофель вкусный.

1. Why is there no word for “is” in Жареный картофель вкусный?

Russian usually omits the verb “to be” (быть) in the present tense.
So:

• Жареный картофель вкусный literally = “Fried potato tasty.”
• The meaning is understood as “Fried potatoes are tasty.”

If you added есть (“is/are”) here – Жареный картофель есть вкусный – it would sound wrong in normal modern Russian. Есть in this sense is only used in the past/future or for special emphatic or archaic styles.

2. Why is there no “a/the” before жареный картофель?

Russian has no articles at all. It doesn’t use words like “a”, “an”, “the”.

Whether you translate жареный картофель as:

• fried potatoes
• fried potato
• the fried potatoes
• the fried potato dish

…depends entirely on context, not on any special marker in Russian. The Russian noun phrase stays the same: жареный картофель.

3. Why does картофель look singular when English uses the plural “potatoes”?

In Russian, картофель is mainly a mass/collective noun, like “potato (as a substance)” or “potato crop”.

So:

• жареный картофель ≈ “fried potatoes” (the dish, in general)
• Grammatically, картофель is singular, but it refers to potato in general, not to one single potato.

If you really need to count individual potatoes, you’d say:

• картофелина = one potato (a tuber)
  
  • три картофелины = three potatoes

4. What gender and case are жареный and картофель in this sentence?

• картофель is masculine, singular, nominative.
  
  • Dictionary form: картофель (мужской род)
• жареный is an adjective (actually a participle used adjectivally) and agrees with картофель in:
  • gender: masculine
  • number: singular
  • case: nominative

So you get жареный картофель (masc. sg. nom.) as the subject, and вкусный (also masc. sg. nom.) as the predicate adjective:

• Жареный (картóфель) вкусный.

5. Is жареный a verb form or an adjective?

Жареный is a past passive participle of the verb жарить (“to fry”), but in this sentence it is used just like a normal adjective:

• жарить → жареный = “fried”

Russian often turns participles into regular adjectives for common descriptions of food:

• варить → варёный (boiled)
• печь → печёный (baked)

So grammatically: формально it’s a participle, but functionally here it’s an adjective.

6. Why is it жареный and not жаренный with double н?

Russian has complicated rules about one Н vs. double НН in participles and derived adjectives.

In this particular very common word:

• The standard correct form is жареный (one н).

Very simply for learners:

• For everyday food adjectives like жареный, варёный, печёный, Russians almost always use one Н in the basic form.
• Forms with НН usually appear when there is an extra suffix or prefix (-енн-, -нн-) or when the word stays a more “pure” participle with its object and aspect details. But жареный картофель is set as the default one-Н spelling.

So you should memorize жареный картофель as a fixed, standard combination.

7. Why is it вкусный and not the short form вкусен?

Вкусный is the full adjective form, and вкусен is the short form.

• Жареный картофель вкусный. (neutral, common)
• Жареный картофель вкусен. (also correct, a bit more “stylistic” / bookish / emphatic)

Differences:

• Full form (вкусный):

  • Very common in speech and writing.
  • Neutral, descriptive: “Fried potatoes are tasty.”

• Short form (вкусен):

  • Often sounds slightly more literary, emphatic, or stylistic.
  • Focuses more on the state/quality right now: “Fried potatoes are (indeed) tasty.”

For everyday speech, вкусный is the safe default.

8. Can I change the word order, for example Вкусный жареный картофель?

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, but it can slightly change emphasis.

Some variations:

1. Жареный картофель вкусный.

   • Neutral: “Fried potatoes are tasty.”

2. Вкусный жареный картофель.

   • Sounds more like part of a list or description of a dish: “(This is) tasty fried potato.”
   • More like a noun phrase than a full statement, unless context makes it clearly a sentence.

3. Картофель жареный вкусный.

   • Possible but sounds unusual; might suggest contrast with картофель in some other form.

For a simple, neutral sentence stating a fact, Жареный картофель вкусный is the most natural.

9. How do Russians normally talk about “potatoes” as food – картофель or картошка?

Both exist, but:

• картофель

  • More formal, neutral, used in writing, menus, official speech.
  • Often collective/mass: “potato (as a crop/ingredient).”

• картошка

  • Informal, very common in everyday speech.
  • Also often mass, but feels more homely.

You will very often hear:

• Жареная картошка вкусная.
  
  • Same meaning in everyday conversation: “Fried potatoes are tasty.”

Here картошка is feminine, so the adjectives change:

• жареная (fem.)
• вкусная (fem.)

10. What is the plural of картофель? Can I say “картофели”?

Grammatically, картофель does have a plural: картофели.
But in real usage, this plural is:

• Rare
• Mostly technical or specialized (e.g., talking about types/varieties of potato plants)

In everyday language, people don’t normally say картофели to mean “potatoes” on a plate.

Instead, for countable potatoes, they use:

• картофелина / картофелины for individual tubers
  
  • две картофелины, три картофелины

Or they just use картошка and context:

• Купи картошки. = “Buy some potatoes.” (mass, uncounted)

11. Why does вкусный end in -ый and not -ий? How do I know which ending to use?

Russian hard-stem masculine adjectives usually end in -ый, and soft-stem ones in -ий.

• вкусный → the root ends in a hard consonant (сн), so you get -ый.
• Examples of other -ый adjectives: новый, красный, старый.

Adjectives in -ий often have a soft consonant, a й, or come from certain patterns:

• синий, русский, хороший.

You mostly learn adjective endings by vocabulary and patterns; here just remember that вкусный is the standard masculine form.