In Russian, participles are words that show actions or states that are still happening. They need to match the nouns they describe based on gender (like boy, girl, or it) and number (whether there’s one or more). This matching is important to make sure our sentences sound right.

Agreement Rules

1. Gender Agreement:

   • Russian has three genders: masculine (for boys and men), feminine (for girls and women), and neuter (for things).
   • The form of the participle changes based on the noun.
   • For example:
     • Masculine: читающий (reading) — Он читает. (He is reading.)
     • Feminine: читающая (reading) — Она читает. (She is reading.)
     • Neuter: читающее (reading) — Оно читает. (It is reading.)

2. Number Agreement:

   • Participles also change based on whether there is one noun (singular) or more than one (plural).
   • For plural nouns, the participle will change to match.
   • For example:
     • Singular: читающий (masculine), читающая (feminine)
     • Plural: читающие (reading) — Они читают. (They are reading.)

Combined Examples

Here are some examples to show how both gender and number agree:

• Masculine Singular:

  • Он видел человека, читающего книгу. (He saw a man reading a book.)

• Feminine Singular:

  • Она встретила девушку, играющую в футбол. (She met a girl playing football.)

• Masculine Plural:

  • Мы знаем людей, читающих эту книгу. (We know people reading this book.)

• Feminine Plural:

  • Они увидели женщин, танцующих на улице. (They saw women dancing in the street.)

Practice

Now, let’s practice! Try changing the gender and number of the participles in these sentences:

1. Она написала статью, ... (пишущий)
2. Они слышали голоса, ... (поющий)

Use these rules to create your own sentences. Make sure your participles correctly match their nouns in gender and number. This practice will help you understand how participles work in Russian!