Russian Adjective Word Order ???

Hello everyone,

My college is a very small and does not have a Russian language department, so I am trying to learn on my own and with learning materials. I recently bought Teach Yourself Russian. It was the only Russian language course program at the bookstore in my city, so I will start with this. I am certain I can find better products on the internet, but I think I should start with just an introduction, and slowly work my way into the study of the language.

I know that I have just started, but I seem to have hit a wall.

I understand that because Russian uses inflection to show grammar, they have a relatively free word order compared to English. My book, and most of the internet sites, are quick to point this out. However, most people are creatures of habit, and I am willing to be that Russians are no different.

When it comes to adjectives the nouns they modify...is there are more common pattern of usage? For example, do Russians tend to put the adjective after or before the noun?

I understand that in theory they can put it in both places. What I want to know, is there a more common pattern?

For example, do Russians more commonly put the adjective after the noun?

Do Russians more commonly put the adjective before the noun?

Does the gender of the noun affect the placement of the adjective? The reason I ask is that my book tends to put the adjective after feminine nouns, but it puts the adjective before masculine nouns. Neuter nouns seem to be 50/50 in this book.

I don't know if this is normal for Russian, or if the authors wanted to stress the lack of word order, or if this was the authors personal preferences.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Sorry everyone, I just thought I checked for spelling and grammar errors in my first post, but I let a few slide by. ;-)



My college is a very small one and does not have a Russian language department, so I am trying to learn on my own and with learning materials. I recently bought Teach Yourself Russian. It was the only Russian language course program at the bookstore in my city, so I will start with this. I am certain I can find better products on the internet, but I think I should start with just an introduction, and slowly work my way into the study of the language.

I know that I have just started, but I seem to have hit a wall.

I understand that because Russian uses inflection to show grammar, they have a relatively free word order compared to English. My book, and most of the internet sites, are quick to point this out. However, most people are creatures of habit, and I am willing to bet that Russians are no different.

When it comes to adjectives and the nouns they modify...is there a more common pattern of usage? For example, do Russians tend to put the adjective after, or before, the noun?

I understand that in theory they can put it in both places. What I want to know, is there a more common pattern?

For example, do Russians more commonly put the adjective after the noun?

Do Russians more commonly put the adjective before the noun?

Does the gender of the noun affect the placement of the adjective?

The reason I ask is that my book tends to put the adjective after feminine nouns, but it puts the adjective before masculine nouns. Neuter nouns seem to be 50/50 in this book.

I don't know if this is normal for Russian, or if the authors wanted to stress the lack of word order, or if this was the authors personal preferences.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

For simple "beginner" sentences you can almost always put it before the noun. Putting it after can change the words that are emphasised.

Я прочитал интересную книгу. I read an interesting book.
Я прочитал книгу интересную. The meaning is different, it has emphasis on "interesting" (I think)

How ever note that short forms of adjectives, or adjectives used in a predicate manner (ie, X [is] adjective), go after the noun.
книга интересна. The book is interesting
книга интересная. The book is interesting
интересная книга. Interesting book

Amateur,

Please forgive my later reply. Thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions.

I think that my English habits were going to put the adjective in front of the noun anyway ;-)

I just wanted to make certain that there weren't any established patterns being used by Russian speakers that while not official, are sort of the common practice.