Adjectives in the Genitive Plural
You already know when to use the Genitive case: after quantities of five or more, with words expressing amount like несколько (several) or большинство (majority), to indicate absence with нет, and after prepositions like у, из, для, около, and от.
When describing plural nouns in these situations, standard hard-stem adjectives replace their nominative ending with -ых.
The Spelling Rule (-их)
Because of Russian spelling rules, you can never write the letter ы after г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ. If an adjective's stem ends in one of these letters, the Genitive plural ending becomes -их. Soft-stem adjectives also take -их.
For example, the stem of маленький ends in к, so its Genitive plural is маленьких.
Pronouns in the Genitive Plural
Possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and pronominal adjectives also adapt to the Genitive plural. Notice how they mirror the adjective endings, frequently taking -их or -ых:
- эти (these) becomes этих
- наши (our) becomes наших
- остальные (the rest) becomes остальных
- любые (any) becomes любых
