Questions & Answers about Хлеб твёрдый, а не мягкий.
Both adjectives describe the masculine noun хлеб, so why does твёрдый end in -ый but мягкий ends in -ий?
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
In the present tense, Russian almost always leaves out the verb "to be" (am, is, are). The meaning is understood just by putting the noun and the adjective next to each other. The sentence literally reads: Хлеб (Bread) твёрдый (hard)...
Does an adjective change its ending if it comes after the noun instead of before it?
No! Even though this lesson teaches adjectives that usually go before nouns (like "the hard bread"), Russian uses these exact same forms when the adjective comes after the noun to state a fact ("the bread is hard"). Both твёрдый and мягкий stay in their standard nominative singular forms.
Why do we need the word а here? Could we just say "Хлеб твёрдый, не мягкий"?
You need the word а because Russian uses it to directly contrast two things. When you want to say "this thing, and not that thing," the standard pattern is to use а не (and not / rather than). It makes the contrast sound complete and natural to a Russian speaker.
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