Common mistakes: Adverbs vs Adjectives

Russian Language
1

Hey, guys! I am Sofia, a Russian language tutor, and I create all the language-related content in gRUmma. We want this community to be a helpful hub for learners, so starting today, I will share some insights from my teaching experience. As a fairly advanced English and Japanese speaker, I can compare Russian to other languages and find the patterns that cause these mistakes.

Let’s start with the most frequent one: confusing adverbs and adjectives.

Typical mistakes:

  1. — Тебе нравится новая машина? — Да, машина хорошо! (Правильно: — Да, машина хорошая!)
  2. — Как прошёл твой день? — Отличный! (Правильно: — Отлично!)

Why it happens:
In English (and some other languages), sometimes we use the same word for adverbs and adjectives. For example, “great” can be translated as either отличный (adj.) or отлично (adv.). If your brain is not used to choosing between these forms, you may pick the first one that comes to mind.

Rules:

  1. Use adverbs when you want to modify or refer to a verb or another adverb. Adverbs in Russian, especially those that have adjective forms, usually end in -о. Be careful: the word that an adverb refers to might not be in the sentence! If it was in the question, you can, but don’t need to repeat it in the answer. Examples:
    — Как прошёл твой день? — Отлично! (The adverb отлично refers to the verb прошёл)

  2. Use adjectives when you want to modify or refer to a noun. Adjectives in Russian have different endings depending on the gender and number: -ой, -ый, -ий (masculine), -ая, -яя (feminine), -ое, -ее (neuter), and -ые, -ие (plural). They never have an -о ending like adverbs. Again, be careful: the word that an adjective refers to might also not be in the sentence! If it was in the question, you can, but don’t have to repeat it in the answer. Examples:
    — Тебе нравится новая машина? — Да, машина хорошая! (The adjective хорошая refers to the feminine noun машина)
    — Какое платье тебе нравится? — Красное. (The adjective красное refers to the neuter noun платье)

I hope this small explanation is helpful! Feel free to ask questions in the comments. I’ll try to answer as soon as possible! :blush:

1 Like