I was doing the first unit of Rosetta Stone Russian. I came across the following two sentences:

1. Здесь два зелёных яблока.
2. Здесь три белые тарелки.

I understand that in both the above sentences, the case should be Genitive Singular, since the quantities are 2 and 3. The nouns have taken Genitive singular , but the adjectives seem to have a mind of its own.

зелёных appears to be Genitive plural and белые appears to be Nominative plural. What am I missing out here ?

Question

I was doing the first unit of Rosetta Stone Russian. I came across the following two sentences:

1. Здесь два зелёных яблока.
2. Здесь три белые тарелки.

I understand that in both the above sentences, the case should be Genitive Singular, since the quantities are 2 and 3. The nouns have taken Genitive singular , but the adjectives seem to have a mind of its own.

зелёных appears to be Genitive plural and белые appears to be Nominative plural. What am I missing out here ?

Answer

Great observation! Indeed this happens to feminine gender adjectives. With numbers 2,3,4 feminine adjectives take the Nominative form. This nuance is often a problem for native speakers as well.

Answer

потому что яблоки мужского рода, а тарелки женского

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