Adjectives and agreement

After this page you will be able to make an adjective match its noun: нови́й стіл, нова́ кни́га, нове́ вікно́. You will know the two sets of endings, hard and soft, and how to tell from the dictionary form which one an adjective uses. You will also know where adjectives usually go.

This page covers only the nominative, the dictionary case of the subject. In other cases the endings change. The case overview explains what cases are.

Adjectives agree with their noun

An adjective changes its ending to match the noun it describes. In the singular it matches the noun’s gender: masculine, feminine or neuter. In the plural there is one form for all genders. This matching is called agreement. (If you need a reminder of how to tell a noun’s gender, see Nouns and gender.)

English adjectives never change: new table, new book, new books. Ukrainian adjectives have four nominative forms.

The dictionary form of an adjective is the masculine singular: нови́й, not нова́.

Hard adjectives

Most adjectives end in -ий in the dictionary form. These are called hard adjectives. Replace -ий with the ending for the gender or number you need.

The endings are -ий, -а, -е, -і. The same endings follow ж, ч, ш and щ: гаря́чий (hot), гаря́ча, гаря́че, гаря́чі.

Soft adjectives

A smaller group ends in -ій in the dictionary form. These are soft adjectives. Their endings are -ій, -я, -є, -і.

Compare the two sets side by side. The plural -і is the same in both.

So the dictionary form tells you everything: -ий means hard endings, -ій means soft ones. The Горох dictionary also says it directly on each adjective’s inflection page: тверда́ гру́па (hard group) or м’яка́ гру́па (soft group).

Stress in adjectives

In the nominative forms on this page, the stress stays on the same part of the word in all four forms. Some adjectives are stressed on the stem (до́брий, до́бра), and some on the ending (нови́й, нова́). The dictionary form tells you which. Two adjectives with the same ending can be stressed differently, so learn the stress with the word.

Agreement follows the noun’s gender, not its meaning

The adjective takes the gender of the noun, whatever the noun refers to. A few cases from Nouns and gender need care:

• Masculine nouns in -о or -а take masculine adjectives: до́брий та́то (a kind dad).
• Feminine nouns for people of either sex take feminine adjectives: мала́ дити́на (a small child), for a boy or a girl.
• Plural-only nouns take the plural form: нові́ окуля́ри (new glasses).

Where the adjective goes

Before the noun

An adjective that describes a noun usually comes just before it, as in English: нова́ кни́га (a new book), гаря́ча ка́ва (hot coffee). When the word order changes, the adjective usually moves together with its noun.

After the noun, as “is …”

When the adjective comes after the noun as a separate part of the sentence, it says something about the noun. In the present tense there is no word for is, so the adjective simply follows. It still agrees with the noun.

In the past tense, the verb бу́ти is used, and both the verb and the adjective agree with the noun: Ка́ва була́ гаря́ча. (The coffee was hot.)

Other cases change the ending

Everything above is the nominative. When the noun is in another case, the adjective changes its ending to match that case too. Here is a single preview: in Я чита́ю нову́ кни́гу (I am reading a new book), the object is in the accusative case, so нова́ кни́га becomes нову́ кни́гу.

The full set of case endings for adjectives comes later. The case overview explains what cases are and what they do.

Common mistakes and limits