Э́то кре́сло. |
А э́то — кре́сла. |
While most masculine and feminine nouns have plurals ending in –ы (or –и, if the stem is soft or there is a spelling rule), the ending for the nominative plural of neuter nouns is –а (or –я for soft stems).
Э́то окно́. |
А э́то — о́кна. |
You will find that a number of common neuter nouns have different stressed syllables in the singular and plural. So be sure to pay attention to the stress marks and practice listening to the plural forms to build up an “auditory memory” for the right forms. Notice as well which words sound the same in singular and plural. Listen to all the forms below carefully.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| окно́ | о́кна |
| кре́сло | кре́сла |
| зе́ркало | зеркала́ |
| сло́во | слова́ |
| пла́тье | пла́тья |
| общежи́тие | общежи́тия |
| упражне́ние | упражне́ния |
| зада́ние | зада́ния |
Remember that when you learn new words, you need to learn the dictionary forms, so that you are not tempted to think that a neuter plural word is a feminine singular noun.
Listen to and read the adjective and decide whether it is in the neuter singular or the plural. Mouse over which form of the word it goes with based on the grammar.
Many foreign words that end in –о/ -е in Russian are indeclinable, meaning that their form stays exactly the same in all case forms. Here are some of the indeclinable words that you have encountered so far. They are all neuter nouns.
| фо́то | photo |
| пальто́ | coat |
| кино́ | movie theatre |
| кафе́ | café |
| метро́ | metro (subway) |
| эссе́ | essay |
Although these words do not change form, they can refer to both singular and to plural objects. Context will allow Russians to know whether the word "фото" refers to one picture or more than one.
Како́е хоро́шее фо́то! → refers to one photo
Каки́е хоро́шие фо́то! → refers to a number of photos
In the sentences below, which indeclinable words are singular and which are plural? How do you know? Are any ambiguous?
| 1. Вот моё фо́то. | Singular | Plural | Ambiguous |
| 2. Вот на́ши фо́то. | Singular | Plural | Ambiguous |
| 3. Где но́вые кафе́? | Singular | Plural | Ambiguous |
| 4. Вот её пальто́. | Singular | Plural | Ambiguous |
| 5. Здесь о́чень хоро́шее кафе́. | Singular | Plural | Ambiguous |
| 6. Каки́е интере́сные эссе́! | Singular | Plural | Ambiguous |
The sentences below provide contexts in which the sentences from the exercise above might be appropriate. Based on the context provided, select the sentence from the above exercise that seems the most likely match.
| Sentence number | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. A teacher praising students' writing | а. 1 | б. 5 | в. 6 |
| 2. Someone recommending a place to eat | а. 5 | б. 3 | в. 4 |
| 3. Tourists looking for places to eat | а. 2 | б. 3 | в. 5 |
| 4. Someone showing a photo album. | а. 1 | б. 6 | в. 2 |
The adjective како́й expresses the idea "what? what kind? which?" and its precise form (како́й кака́я како́е каки́е) depends on the noun that it modifies. Како́й and its forms can be used to ask questions, such as:
Notice that in questions with э́то (is it / are they) како́й comes first and the noun it modifies winds up at the end of the sentence.
The English word what has no single translation into Russian. You will need to pay close attention to context when you are trying to put an English phrase with what into Russian. When what stands in for a noun, you will probably need a form of что. For example, What is that? = Что э́то? What does he know? = Что он зна́ет?
When what is actually a synonym for “what kind? which one?” and modifies a noun in the sentence, you will need a form of како́й. What city is it? = Како́й э́то го́род?
Како́й and its forms can also be used in exclamations, as in the examples below.
| Како́й большо́й го́род! | What a big city! |
| Кака́я некраси́вая соба́ка! | What an ugly dog! |
| Како́е хоро́шее фо́то! | What a great photo! |
| Каки́е ужа́сные де́ти! | What horrible children! |
Exclamations in Russian can either be used to compliment or to criticize.
Context and intonation will allow you to distinguish whether како́й is introducing a question or is being used in an exclamation.
In questions with како́й, we will use the same intonation contour that you learned about in Unit 1 for questions with a question word. That is, a slightly raised heavy tone will be placed on the stressed syllable in како́й, and then the intonation will fall toward the end of the sentence. In exclamations, intonation will rise on the stressed syllable of како́й, stay elevated through the phrase, and fall only after the stressed syllabus of the exclamation's final word. Listen to the differences in intonation in the following sentences.
| Како́й Яросла́вль го́род? | What kind of city is Yaroslavl'? |
| Како́́й большо́й го́род! | What a big city! |
Listen to the following sentences and check whether they are exclamations or questions.
Russians tend to accept compliments modestly, and if a compliment or criticism seems unearned they may respond by questioning your judgment with the phrase Что ты? / Что вы? and then stating the opposite of your comment.
Tony might explain his name to Russians in the following way:
Мора́лес — моя́ фами́лия, а То́ни — моё и́мя.
While both фами́лия and и́мя end in –я, you will notice that the forms of мой that go with them are different. While the overwhelming majority of Russian nouns whose dictionary forms end in –я are feminine, the ten Russian nouns that end in –мя are neuter. In a beginning course in Russian, you will encounter only two of these nouns: и́мя = name and вре́мя = time.
