Another Beginner's Grammar Question

[improperlyhuman]

I'm totally new to Russian grammar, so I want to know if my thinking process is incorrect.

My sentence is

Вечером я пишу в своей гостиной.

I guessed from the ending of гостиная that it is feminine, and в is a preposition, although not expressing motion. So, I looked at the endings for singular feminine nouns in the prepositional case. -ой is not listed on my chart. I also have Schaum's Russian Grammar, and it's not there either. I don't understand this noun suffix.

Thanks

Comments

The living room

[lion-casserole.livejournal.com]

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"Вечером я пишу в своей гостиной" is a shortened form of "Вечером я пишу в своей гостиной комнате" sentence.

So, "гостиная" (a noon, feminine) is actually "гостиная комната", i.e. "the living room", a room to meet guests in one's house.

Don't be surprised, there is also "гостиный дом", "гостиный флигель", as well as "гостиный двор", "гостиный ряд" in Russian. :)

Re: The living room

[scolar.livejournal.com]

It is not a shortened form, of course. Nobody says "гостиная комната" nowadays. While you are absolutely right pointing out that initially it was an adjective, in modern Russian "гостиная" is a noun, and all your examples with "гостиная" as an adjective are heavily old-fashioned.

However, as oryx_and_crake mentioned, the noun "гостиная" declines as an adjective.

Re: The living room

[lion-casserole.livejournal.com]

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There is just one example of "гостиная" (as a noun) in my post.

That is not mandatory to use "гостиная" instead of "гостиная комната", as well as "ванная" instead of "ванная комната". In the same time one would say "душевая" (never "душевая комната", "кухня", "столовая", "прихожая", "спальня", "операционная", etc.

The adjectives "гостиная" (гостиная комната, мебель) and "гостиный" (гостиный двор) are indeed pretty usual in modern Russian, e.g. http://www.bgd.ru, http://www.m-gid.ru/site.xp/053057053.html

Re: The living room

[scolar.livejournal.com]

Try to google "в гостиной комнате" and "в гостиной". It's like 1:20.

Re: The living room

[lion-casserole.livejournal.com]

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Could be, but that is not 0:20.

Anyway, I would not recommend the Google search results being an argument.

http://gramota.ru/slovari/dic/?word=%E3%EE%F1%F2%E8%ED%FB%E9&all=x
http://gramota.ru/slovari/dic/?lop=x&bts=x&zar=x&ab=x&sin=x&lv=x&az=x&pe=x&word=%E3%EE%F1%F2%E8%ED%E0%FF