Грамматика русского языка. Часть 7. Имя прилагательное. Глава 6. Прилагательные в родительном падеже, множественном числе. Russian Grammar. Part 7. The Adjective. Unit 6. Adjectives in The Genitive Plural.

An adiective must always agree with the noun it is describing; if the noun is in the genitive plural, so must the adiective describing it. There are only two genitive plural adiective endings (irrespective of gender).

Tne two possible endings for genitive plural adjectives are ых and их (which are actually the same endings used for the animate accusative plural of adjectives). These endings apply to all three genders.

Stressed and unstressed adjectives always take the ending ых, unless their stem ends in г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ (spelling rule 1).


Examples of the ending ых:

Паспорта молодых туристов (the passports of the young tourists)
Книги современных писателей (the books of the modern writers)
фотографии иностранных курортов (photographs of foreign resorts)

The genitive plural adjective ending is их if:

• the adjective's stem ends in г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ (spelling rule 1)
• the adjective is soft (e.g. синий dark blue)
• the adjective is possessive (e.g. мой)

Examples of the ending их:

The adjective's stem ends in г, к, х, ж, ч, ш, щ:

Паспорта английских туристов (passports of English tourists)

The adjective is soft:

Книги древних писателей (books of the ancient writers)

The adjective is possessive:

Фотографии наших друзей (photographs of our friends)