When building a custom bouquet (букет), you will often ask for specific quantities of flowers. Let's look at how adjectives behave after the numbers два / две (two), три (three), and четыре (four) in the Nominative or inanimate Accusative cases.
While the noun following these numbers takes the Genitive Singular, the adjective's ending depends on the noun's gender.
Feminine Nouns
For feminine nouns—such as роза (rose), лилия (lily), and орхидея (orchid)—the adjective takes the Nominative Plural ending (-ые or -ие).
| Let's start putting together the bouquet: I will take three red roses. | Давайте начнём собирать букет: я возьму три красные розы. |
Masculine and Neuter Nouns
For masculine and neuter nouns, the adjective takes the Genitive Plural ending (-ых or -их). Flowers like тюльпан (tulip) and пион (peony) are masculine:
| I want to buy two fragrant tulips for this bouquet. | Я хочу купить два ароматных тюльпана для этого букета. |
Mixing and Matching
When ordering a complex arrangement, apply the correct adjective ending to each noun based on its gender. Notice how feminine nouns take Nominative Plural adjectives, while masculine and neuter nouns take Genitive Plural adjectives:
| Four beautiful tulips, two blue orchids, and three green plants are lying on the table. | На столе лежат четыре красивых тюльпана, две синие орхидеи и три зелёных растения. |
| I want to buy two yellow peonies and three small daisies. | Я хочу купить два жёлтых пиона и три маленькие ромашки. |