Short Adjective Inquiry

[John Langran]

Also perhaps "ty zelen" - "you are green (inexperienced)"

Perhaps the rule to give to students is that when you meet short form 
adjectives of colour they are likely to be either from poetic/literary 
sources, or sayings, or as my example with a figurative meaning. And of 
course than non-native speakers shouldn't invent them.

What other adjectives have no short form? In my list I have:
adjectives of time and place - vechernii, dnevnoy, mestny (?)
adjectives that denote substances - chugunny, zolotoy, derevyanny
adjectives in "-ovy", mainly from trees, plants, etc - vishnyovy, lipovy, 
oblepikhovy etc.
ordinal numbers - pervy, vtoroy
adjectives in -ski  - angliisky etc
possessive adjectives eg - volchii

John Langran
www.ruslan.co.uk


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Katya Jordan" <yvj2p at VIRGINIA.EDU>
To: <SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:14 AM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Short Adjective Inquiry


> "Sinij" is definitely not the only adjective that has short forms, but it 
> is the only one that has an interesting form.  However, if you're looking 
> for other short-form color adjectives, they seem to be used only in set 
> expressions, poetry, and proverbs, if they are used at all: Khorosh 
> vinograd, da zelen;  Ne krasna izba uglami, a krasna pirogami, just to 
> name a couple.
>
> When it comes to ordinary everyday speech, they are used rarely, and 
> "zholty" and "sine" would sound just as awkward as "golubo" and 
> "fioletov." The only short color adjective that I do use and I heard 
> others use is "belo" in a phrase "na ulitse belym-belo."
>
> Katya Jordan
>
> Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures
> University of Virginia
> 109 New Cabell Hall / PO Box 400783
> Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4783
> Tel: (434) 924-3548   FAX: (434) 982-2744
>
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