Adjective Agreement

Ruvian adjective inflection, gender agreement and number agreement

Ruvian adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe in grammatical gender and number. Every adjective used in a sentence to describe a noun must carry the appropriate agreement ending.

Adjective agreement follows the same ending system as noun declension. This means adjectives use the endings -o, -a and -e in the singular and -os, -as and -es in the plural.

An adjective cannot normally remain in its uninflected dictionary form when modifying a noun in a sentence.

1. Singular adjective endings

Ruvian has three singular adjective endings:

Masculine (-o)

The ending -o is used when describing a masculine singular noun.

Examples:

• bom → bomo (good, masculine)

• mal → malo (bad, masculine)

• abur → aburo (bored, masculine)

• anč → ančo (old, masculine)

Feminine (-a)

The ending -a is used when describing a feminine singular noun.

Examples:

• bom → boma (good, feminine)

• mal → mala (bad, feminine)

• abur → abura (bored, feminine)

• anč → anča (old, feminine)

Neuter (-e)

The ending -e is used when describing a neuter singular noun.

This includes nouns that cannot have a gender, nouns that can refer to either gender, and nouns whose gender is unspecified.

Examples:

• bom → bome (good, neuter)

• mal → male (bad, neuter)

• abur → abure (bored, unspecified gender)

• anč → anče (old, neuter)

2. Plural adjective endings

Plural adjectives follow the same gender distinctions, using an additional -s.

Examples:

3. Mixed-gender agreement

When an adjective describes a group containing both masculine and feminine nouns, the adjective must use the -esending.

Ruvian does not use masculine plural agreement as the default for mixed-gender groups.

For example:

• A group of male friends: amigos bomos

• A group of female friends: amigas bomas

• A mixed group of friends: amiges bomes

The same rule applies when describing groups of people, animals or other nouns with different genders.

4. Agreement with neuter nouns

When an adjective describes a noun with no grammatical gender, or one whose gender is unspecified, it must use the neuter ending.

For example:

• A good house: maise bome

• A bad book: livere male

The adjective remains neuter regardless of whether the noun refers to something living or inanimate.

5. Mandatory adjective agreement

Every adjective modifying a noun in an ordinary sentence must carry the correct agreement ending.

This rule applies regardless of where the adjective appears in the sentence.

Adjective agreement is determined by the noun being described, not by the speaker or the subject performing an action.

For example, an adjective describing a masculine noun must use -o, even if the speaker is female or the sentence's subject has a different gender.

The same applies to feminine, neuter and plural nouns.

6. Adjectives and sentence structure

Adjective endings do not change according to their position in a sentence.

Whether an adjective appears before or after its noun, it must maintain agreement with that noun.

The agreement system also applies when adjectives are used as descriptions alongside linking verbs.

The noun's gender and number remain the determining factors.

7. Dictionary forms and exceptions

Adjectives are listed in their uninflected dictionary forms.

These forms are used for vocabulary entries and when referring to an adjective as a word rather than using it to describe a noun.

When used in an ordinary sentence to modify a noun, the appropriate agreement ending must be added.

Any exceptions must be explicitly established within Ruvian grammar rather than assumed.

8. Summary

Ruvian adjective agreement follows six mandatory endings:

The central rule of Ruvian adjective grammar is that every adjective modifying a noun must agree with that noun in gender and number.

Adjectives use the same gender and number distinctions as nouns, ensuring consistency throughout the language.

Masculine nouns require masculine adjectives, feminine nouns require feminine adjectives, and neuter nouns require neuter adjectives. Mixed-gender groups always require neuter plural agreement using -es.