Some rules relating to stress in adjectives
- Stress in adjectives is stable.
- If the stress in the dictionary form (positive degree) falls on a syllable of the stem, this will be retained throughout the whole declension (but see below for comparative forms). An example: жо́втий / жо́втого / жо́втим etc. – yellow.
- If the stress in the dictionary form falls on the ending, it will remain throughout on the first (or only) syllable of the stem, e.g. легки́й / легко́го / легки́м etc. – light(weight).
- The comparative for most adjectives is formed with the suffix -іший, with the stress usually falling on the «і» – розу́мний розумні́ший.
- The superlative, with the addition of the prefix най-, retains the stress of the comparative.
- Adjectives formed from one-syllable nouns tend to be stressed on the ending, e.g. ліс – лісови́й (forest), лід – льодови́й (ice), сніг – снігови́й (snow), світ – світови́й (world), степ - степови́й (steppe) but сад – садо́вий (orchard, garden).
- In the majority of adjectives ending in -йний (including the large numbers derived from foreign loan words ending in -ія, -eя, -ація etc.) the stress falls on the vowel before the ending, e.g. чай – ча́йний (tea), сім’я – сіме́йний (family), музей - музе́йний (museum), реєстрація – реєстраці́йний (registration), зброя – збро́йний (arms – armed) etc.
- In many adjectives derived from nouns and ending in -ський and -овий the stress of the noun is retained, e.g. імпе́рія – імпе́рський (empire – imperial), а́втор – а́вторський (author – author’s), ри́нок – ри́нковий (market), зразо́к – зразка́ – зразко́вий (example – exemplar/y) etc.
- An interesting phenomenon relates to words like замковий, which can be stressed in three different ways, depending on its meaning: за́мковий (derived from за́мок – castle), замко́вий (derived from замо́к – lock) and замкови́й (an adjectival form used nominally to denote an artillery soldier manning a big gun). But, as with all adjectives, once you know where the stress falls for each meaning, this remains stable throughout.