Adjectives in all cases

After this page you will be able to put an adjective in any case to match its noun: у ново́му буди́нку (in the new house), з си́ньою ру́чкою (with the blue pen), для мого́ бра́та (for my brother). You will know the full sets of hard and soft endings, when the accusative looks like the genitive, and how мій, твій, наш and ваш change.

Adjectives and agreement covered the nominative: нови́й, нова́, нове́, нові́. Here are the other cases.

Agreement in case

An adjective agrees with its noun in gender, number and case. If the noun is in the instrumental, so is the adjective. The noun’s case comes from its job in the sentence or from a preposition, as the case overview explains.

Hard adjectives: новий

Most adjectives are hard, with -ий in the dictionary form. These are the forms of нови́й (new). The masculine and neuter columns are side by side because they differ only in the nominative and accusative.

The endings to learn, without the stem:

• Masculine and neuter: -ого, -ому, -им, -ому.
• Feminine: -ої, -ій, -у, -ою, -ій.
• Plural, all genders: -их, -им, -ими, -их.

The stress usually stays on the same part of the word as in the dictionary form. Нови́й is stressed on the ending in every form. До́брий (good) is stressed on the stem in every form: до́брого, до́брій, до́брими.

In the masculine and neuter locative, the spelling standard gives -ому first and -ім as a second form. This page uses -ому.

Soft adjectives: синій

Soft adjectives, with -ій in the dictionary form, have the same endings with a soft н. In writing, о after the soft consonant becomes ьо, а becomes я, у becomes ю, and и becomes і.

Compare ново́го and си́нього, ново́ю and си́ньою, нови́х and си́ніх. Other soft adjectives, such as оста́нній (last) and лі́тній (summer), follow си́ній.

The accusative of people and animals

In the accusative, masculine singular and all plural adjectives have two possible forms. Which one you use depends on the noun:

• For people and animals, the accusative is the same as the genitive: ново́го студе́нта, нови́х студе́нтів.
• For things, the accusative is the same as the nominative: нови́й буди́нок, нові́ буди́нки.

The noun follows the same rule, and the adjective simply agrees with it. Feminine and neuter singular adjectives are not affected: feminine has its own accusative -у (-ю), and neuter is like the nominative.

The same split is behind Я ба́чу бра́та but Я ба́чу стіл in the case overview.

My, your, our: possessives in all cases

The possessives change for case too, and they agree with the noun that is owned, as Pronouns explained. Наш and ваш take the endings of hard adjectives. Мій and твій have endings of their own.

Твій (your, informal) changes in exactly the same way: твого́, твоє́му, твої́й, твоє́ю, твої́ми.

Ваш (your, formal or plural) changes in exactly the same way: ва́шого, ва́шому, ва́шій, ва́шою, ва́шими. Ї́хній (their) takes the endings of soft adjectives, like си́ній.

His, her and their with його́, її́ and їх never change, whatever the case: до його́ бра́та, з її́ сестро́ю. Personal pronouns in all cases shows why they do not take н-.

Common mistakes and limits