6.1 The core rule: adjectives **follow** the noun and **agree** with it
6 · Adjectives — describing things · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar
Two habits to build, and they're the whole chapter:
1. Word order — adjective comes second. English says a big house; Assyrian says house big: beta gura. The noun leads, the describing word trails.
2. Agreement — the adjective takes an ending to match the noun. Agreement just means the adjective changes its tail to echo whether the noun is masculine, feminine, or plural. The three endings mirror the noun endings you already know:
- masculine singular → -a → gura "big"
- feminine singular → -ta → gurta "big"
- plural (either gender) → -e → gure "big"
So the single idea "big" surfaces as gura / gurta / gure depending on what it's describing.
Agreement in action. Watch one adjective flex to fit different nouns (genders from Ch. 5):
- beta gura — "a big house" (beta masculine → -a)
- mata gurta — "a big village" (mata feminine → -ta)
- bate gure — "big houses" (plural → -e)
- kalba kuma — "a black dog" (masculine)
- ida surta — "a small hand" (ida is a feminine body part → -ta)
- yonate khvare — "white doves" (plural)
Hear how gura and gurta are the same word, just dressed for the noun in front of them. That's the reflex to build.
Adjectives can moonlight as nouns. Drop the noun and an adjective stands alone as "the _ one": sura "the small one," kume "the black ones." Very common in speech — you don't have to repeat the noun once it's clear.
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