Arthur Lohwater: A. J. Lohwater's Russian-English Dictionary of the Mathematical Sciences

Adjectives may in some instances stand alone and act as nouns, although they still decline as long-form adjectives: кривая, "a curve," is a feminine noun; подынтегральный, "an integrand," is a masculine noun.

1. The long form of the adjective.The adjectives сложный, "complicated," and дуговой 3 , "arc," are declined into all the cases in singular and plural, and in the three genders.

сложный вопрос → a complicated question ( m. )

сложная задача → a complicated problem ( f. )

сложное решение → a complicated solution ( n. )

a. сложный; stem: сложн-

b. дуговой; stem: дугов-

2. The short form of the adjective.The adjectives правыйand голодныйappear below in their short forms. The simple endings are added to the adjectival stem, which is identical to the stem of the long form.

a. Правый; stem: прав-

прав ( m. sing. ), права ( f. sing. )

право ( n. sing. ), правы ( pl. )

b. Голодный; stem: голодн-

голоден ( m. sing. ), голодна ( f. sing. )

голодно ( n. sing. ), голодны ( pl. )

Note that in the adjective голодный, the masculine singular short form exhibits what appears to be an alternate stem. This occurs in a number of adjectives; an -еor an -оappears between the two final consonants. Two other adjectives which exhibit this alternation are редкий, "infrequent," and верный, "correct," whose stems are редк-and верн-. The corresponding short forms are редокand верен.

3. A complete reference chart of adjectival endings appears in the Appendix.

The Russian adjective occurs not only in the positive degree, whose forms have been given in the previous section, but also in the comparative and superlative degrees.

1. The comparative degree of the adjective may be expressed in two ways.

a. Suffixation.The suffix -ее(and -еin certain adjectives) is added to the adjectival stem. This form is invariable. For the adjective сложный, "complex," the comparative form is сложнее, "more complex," while the comparative of большой, "large," is больше, "larger."

b. Use of the words более, "more," and менее, "less."These words are used in conjunction with the positive adjective in either its long or short form, depending upon its use in the sentence. Болееand менееare not inflected, but the long-form adjective used is declined.

более ранняя теорема Белинского → an earlier theorem of Belinskii

в более узком смысле → in a narrower sense

2. The comparative conjunction (English "than") in Russian is the word чем. However, a comparison may be expressed without the word чемby declining the second item into the genitive case.

Неравенство (11) слабее чем неравенство (12). → The inequality (11) is weaker than the inequality (12).

3. The superlative degree may be expressed in several ways, some used more frequently than others.

a. Use of the word самый followed by the adjective.Both the adjective and the word самый, which is also an adjective, are declined,

самый сложный → most complex

самой интересной теоремы → of the most interesting theorem

b. Suffixation.The suffix -ейш, -айшis added to the adjectival stem, and the adjectival endings are added to the resultant form.

новый, новейший → new, newest

важный, важнейший → important, most important

высокий, высочайший → high, highest 4

While a common translation of this form is "the most complex theorem," the use of this form generally indicates a high, although not superlative, degree of the adjective, such as "a most complex theorem."

c. Use of the prefix наи-.This occurs infrequently.

наисильнейший → strongest

d. Use of the word наиболее instead of самый.Although far less common in usage than самый, наиболееmay precede the adjective and is indeclinable.

наиболее интересный → most interesting

e. Use of the word всех in the predicate.The comparative form (that form of the adjective ending in -ее) plus the genitive plural of весь(all) may be used to express the superlative degree of an adjective.