Template:uk-ndecl/documentation

Parameters
Normally there is only one parameter to specify, e.g. for :

which produces

Note that the lemma is given followed by angle brackets, and an accent needs to be placed on the appropriate syllable (it can be omitted in monosyllabic words). In some cases, properties need to be given inside of angle brackets, for example for :



which produces

Here, we specify two properties:  (a stress pattern indicator, in this case specifying that the noun is end-stressed, i.e. the stress is on the endings rather than the stem) and   (indicating that this is a personal noun, where the accusative is the same as the genitive rather than the nominative).

The general format is the accented noun lemma (the nominative singular, or nominative plural for plural-only nouns), followed by a spec in angle brackets. The format of the spec is

i.e. one or more properties, separated by periods. All properties are optional. The following properties are recognized:
 * Gender:  for masculine,   for feminine,   for nouns that can be either masculine or feminine,   for neuter. Most of the time this isn't needed, but it's required for certain nouns (e.g. most nouns ending in -ь and some nouns ending in -я) to determine the correct declension type. Note that the gender must be given capitalized.
 * Stress pattern:,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,   or  . These are based on Zaliznyak's Russian-language patterns. Multiple comma-separated stress patterns can be given. See below for more information.
 * Reducibility:  to indicate an alternation between a vowel (one of о, е, є or occasionally і) and no vowel in the final syllable, where the vowel appears in endings that do not themselves contain a vowel (typically the nominative/accusative singular and/or the genitive plural). This code should be placed directly after or used in place of the stress pattern, e.g.   to indicate a reducible noun with stress pattern c,   to indicate a noun with stress pattern b that can be either reducible or non-reducible, and just   to indicate a reducible noun with the default stress pattern.
 * Reversed genitive plural stress:  to indicate that the genitive plural stress is the opposite of what the stress pattern calls for. This code should be placed directly after or used in place of the stress pattern, e.g.   to indicate a noun with stress pattern c and reversed genitive plural stress,   to indicate a reducible noun with stress pattern c and reversed genitive plural stress,   to indicate a noun with stress pattern d that can have either reversed or normal genitive plural stress, and just   to indicate a noun with reversed genitive plural stress and the default stress pattern.
 * Animacy:  for personal nouns,   for animal nouns,   for inanimate nouns. The default is almost always inanimate (except when   or   are specified); animate nouns need an animacy code given.
 * Number:  for singular-only nouns,   for plural-only nouns. If unspecified, nouns have both singular and plural.
 * Softness/hardness:
 * to indicate soft endings for a noun ending in Cyrillic -р;
 * to indicate semisoft endings for a noun ending in Cyrillic -р;
 * to indicate soft plural endings, e.g. for (only works currently for masculine and feminine hard-stem nouns);
 * to indicate hard plural endings, e.g. for (only works currently for neuters in -я).
 * Vowel alternations:
 * (a Latin-script i, not a Cyrillic script i) to indicate a change from Cyrillic о or е to і when the ending does not begin with a vowel;
 * (a Latin-script io) to indicate a change from і to о when the ending does begin with a vowel;
 * (a Latin-script ie) to indicate a similar change from і to е when the ending begins with a vowel.
 * Special variants:
 * to indicate that a noun ending in -ин (e.g., ) loses this ending in the plural;
 * to indicate that a soft feminine plural-only noun is third-declension rather than first-declension (i.e. its singular would end in -ь or a consonant rather than -я or -а);
 * to indicate that the noun is a surname, in which case the vocative singular can be the same as the nominative singular in addition to its normal form (this implies, as surnames normally refer to people);
 * to indicate t-stem neuter nouns, i.e. that a neuter noun ending in -я (e.g. ) has a stem -ят in most forms (this implies, as nouns of this form usually refer to the young of animals);
 * to indicate en-stem neuter nouns, i.e. that a neuter noun ending in -м'я has alternative forms utilizing a stem in -ен in most singular forms (e.g. with alternative genitive/dative/locative singular ви́мені and alternative instrumental singular ви́менем).
 * Stem overrides:
 * to specify a different stem than the lemma's stem to use for endings beginning with a vowel;
 * to specify a different stem to use in the plural.
 * Specific form overrides: Examples are  to specify that the genitive singular ends in -у,   to specify that the locative singular ends in -ю or -і,   to specify that the vocative singular ends in -е with stress on the stem (regardless of the accent pattern) and   to specify that the genitive plural has the value земе́ль. These are explained more below.

The properties can be given in any order, but it is recommended that the following order be used:
 * 1) Gender
 * 2) Stress pattern, reducibility, reversed genitive plural stress
 * 3) Adjectival indicator
 * 4) Animacy
 * 5) Number
 * 6) Softness/hardness
 * 7) Vowel alternations
 * 8) Special variants
 * 9) Stem overrides
 * 10) Specific form overrides

Gender
The gender can be specified using  for masculine,   for feminine,   for nouns that can be either masculine or feminine, and   for neuter. The gender can usually be omitted, but is required in certain cases, e.g. with some nouns ending in -ь and some nouns ending in -я. If the gender is omitted, it defaults as follows: The gender needs to be explicitly given in the following cases:
 * 1) Nouns ending in a consonant default to masculine.
 * 2) Nouns ending in a soft sign must have the gender explicitly given, except in the following cases:
 * 3) Nouns ending in -ець and -єць, stressed or unstressed, default to masculine.
 * 4) Nouns ending in unstressed -тель default to masculine.
 * 5) Nouns ending in unstressed -ість default to feminine.
 * 6) Nouns ending in -а default to feminine.
 * 7) Nouns ending in -о or -е default to neuter.
 * 8) Nouns ending in -'я (e.g., , ) or in a double consonant + -я (e.g. , , ) default to neuter.
 * 9) Nouns with the code   (e.g., ) default to neuter.
 * 10) Other nouns in -я default to feminine.
 * 1) Nouns ending in a soft sign other than those mentioned above; e.g.  (masculine),  (feminine).
 * 2) Masculine or feminine nouns ending in -'я (e.g., which is feminine) or in a double consonant + -я (e.g. , which is feminine, and , which is either masculine or feminine).
 * 3) Feminine nouns ending in a consonant; e.g.,.
 * 4) Neuter nouns ending in -я other than the two types mentioned above; e.g.,.

Examples:

1. (masculine) ends in a soft sign, and so needs the gender to be specified:



which produces

2. is feminine and ends in a consonant, and so needs the gender to be specified:



which produces

3. is neuter but does not end in a double consonant + -я, and so needs the gender to be specified:



which produces

4. is masculine but ends in -а, which defaults to feminine. In this case, masculine and feminine nouns in -а have identical declensions, so the gender doesn't need to be given, but it's a good idea to specify it anyway, because it is needed in (when it is modified to support syntax similar to, parallel to ).



which produces

Stress patterns and reducibility
The following table specifies where the stress falls (stem or ending):

NOTE: Boldfaced cases differ from the other cases in the same number (singular or plural).

The accusative plural is left out in the above table because it is derived from either the nominative plural, genitive plural or both, depending on the noun's animacy. The vocative singular is left out because it is frequently stem-stressed even when the remaining singular cases are ending-stressed. (Whether or not this special case applies depends on the particular declension and sometimes other factors.)

An example needing the stress pattern specified is, with stress pattern b (genitive singular кавуна́, nominative plural кавуни́, etc.):



which produces

Some nouns are reducible, meaning they have an alternation between a vowel (о, е, є or occasionally і) before the final consonant in forms where the ending does not begin with a vowel, and no vowel in forms where the ending does begin with a vowel. The forms that use the unreduced stem variant are the nominative singular of masculine nouns; the accusative singular of inanimate masculine nouns; the genitive plural of feminine nouns in -а and -я, and of neuter nouns in general; and (theoretically) the nominative, accusative and instrumental singular of third-declension feminine nouns. All other forms use the reduced stem variant.

An example is, where most forms use a stem свекр- (genitive singular све́кра, nominative plural све́кри, etc.):



which produces

If both a stress pattern and the reducible indicator need to be given, they should be combined, as with (reduced stem зайц-, genitive singular за́йця, nominative plural зайці́, etc.):



which produces

Multiple stress patterns can be given, comma-separated. An example needing this is, with nominative plural either горі́лки (stem-stressed) or горілки́ (ending-stressed):



which produces

This noun is reducible because the genitive plural is горі́лок or горіло́к.

The default stress pattern is as follows:
 * The default is  in the following cases:
 * The lemma is plural-only and ends in a stressed vowel (e.g. ).
 * The lemma is masculine and ends in stressed -о́ or -е́ (e.g. ).
 * The lemma is neuter and ends in stressed -я́ or -а́ (e.g., , , ).
 * The lemma is reducible and the stress is on the reducible vowel (e.g., ).
 * Otherwise, if the lemma ends in a stressed vowel (which includes all feminines, and all neuters in -о́ and -е́), the default is.
 * Otherwise, the default is.

Reversed genitive plural stress
Several nouns have unexpected stress in the genitive plural. This could be controlled using an override, but because of its commonness, a shortcut is available using the code. This code should be placed directly after the stress pattern, as with the reducible code. If both  and   need to be given, either order is possible, but by convention the order   should be used. Examples:

Examples:

1. is stem-stressed everywhere but in the genitive plural, which has the form областе́й instead of expected *о́бластей. This can be specified as follows:



which produces

2. is stem-stressed in the singular and end-stressed in the plural (i.e. stress pattern  ), except for the genitive plural, which has the form ма́сел instead of expected *масе́л. This can be specified as follows:



which produces

Here we also supply  to indicate that the noun is reducible (i.e. it has an extra vowel in the genitive plural, whose ending does not begin with a vowel).

3. mostly follows stress pattern   (end-stressed in the singular except for the accusative singular, and stem-stressed in the plural), but has unexpected genitive plural голі́в instead of *го́лів or *го́лов. Here, there is also an о-і vowel alternation, which is specified using the  code (described later). This can be specified as follows:



which produces

Note that technically, the і in the genitive plural is part of the stem, and there is no ending. In the case where  calls for ending stress and there is no ending to be stressed, the stress moves onto the last syllable of the stem.

3. follows stress pattern   and is reducible, hence the expected genitive plural is се́стер. This does occur, but so does the opposite-stress form сесте́р. To specify this, use a specification as follows:



which produces

Here we specify two stress indicators,  (reducible and with normal genitive plural stress) and   (reducible with reversed genitive plural stress). Because the stress pattern itself is left out, it defaults to  (the default for feminines with ending stress in the lemma form). We also have to specify the animacy indicator  because this is a personal noun (see the next section).

Adjectival indicator
To indicate that a noun declines as if it were an adjective, use. An example is (genitive singular лю́того):



which produces

Other indicators, such as animacy and number, can be included as necessary. An example is, which is a personal noun:



which produces

Soft adjectival nouns will automatically be recognized by their ending, such as with (genitive singular майбу́тнього):



which produces

Animacy
Animacy is specified using  for personal nouns and   for animal nouns. The code  for inanimate nouns can be given, but is essentially never needed because nouns normally default to inanimate. The only exception is when the neuter variant code  is given; all such nouns refer to the young of animals, and default to   animacy.

Examples:

1. is inanimate, so the animacy doesn't need to be given:



which produces

2. is an animal noun, so the animacy code   needs to be specified:



which produces

Note here that the accusative plural has two forms, one identical to the nominative plural and the other identical to the genitive plural; this is characteristic of animal nouns.

3. is a personal noun (human-like mythological creatures are considered personal; similarly, animal-like mythological creatures such as dragons are considered animal nouns). Thus the animacy code  needs to be specified:



which produces

Note here that the accusative singular and plural are identical to the genitive singular and plural, respectively. All personal nouns behave this way in the plural, and all masculine personal and animal nouns behave this way in the singular.

4. is an animal noun of the t-stem type (genitive singular порося́ти, nominative plural порося́та). Once  is specified, the animacy doesn't need to be given because code   implies animacy  :



which produces

5. is a personal noun of the t-stem type (genitive singular дівча́ти, nominative plural дівча́та). Code  implies , so   must be given:



which produces

Number
By default, all nouns are singular/plural, including proper nouns. (Many proper nouns, such as names and surnames, have plural forms.) To indicate that a noun is singular-only, use, as with :



which produces

Note that singular-only nouns are sometimes declined differently from singular/plural nouns. For example, for masculine nouns the genitive singular defaults to -у instead of -а, and the locative singular defaults to either -у or -і instead of just -і.

To indicate that a noun is plural-only, use  and give the lemma in its plural form, as with :



which produces

In the above case, the module automatically knows that the noun is neuter by its ending. However, if the lemma ends in -и or -і, you will have to give the gender explicitly ( or  ), so that the module knows how to generate the genitive plural. If you are not sure of the gender, look for a related singular/plural noun or for cognate nouns in other languages (especially Russian), or base the gender on the genitive plural ( if the genitive plural ends in -ів,   if the genitive plural ends in nothing, in -ь or in -ей). An example is, which should be indicated as masculine because its genitive plural is джу́нглів:



which produces

Another example is, which is shown to be feminine by its genitive plural конопе́ль as well as by the cognate in Russian, which is singular/plural and feminine:



which produces

Note here that the noun is reducible, with reversed genitive plural stress, as indicated by.

Some feminine plural-only nouns belong to the third declension, i.e. their singular equivalent would end in a consonant or -ь rather than -а or -я. This is shown most clearly by a genitive plural in -ей. An example is, with genitive plural двере́й (compare 🇨🇬). This should be indicated using the code. This automatically implies, which doesn't need to be given explicitly:



which produces

Here, the genitive plural has reversed stress (двере́й instead of expected *две́рей), and the instrumental plural is irregular.

Softness and hardness
Most of the time, whether a noun is soft, semisoft or hard can be determined automatically from the ending. Occasionally, however, this isn't the case (e.g. with nouns ending in -р). In addition, some nouns are hard in the singular and soft in the plural, or vice-versa. Special codes are provided for these cases.

By default, nouns in -р are hard. To specify that such a noun is soft, use. An example is (genitive singular бібліоте́каря, nominative plural бібліоте́карі, etc.):



which produces

A few nouns in -р are semisoft, meaning they take endings similar to nouns that end in a hushing consonant (one of ч ж ш щ). An example is (genitive singular батяра́ but instrumental singular батяре́м, nominative plural батярі́, etc.):



which produces

A fourth type of noun in -р is hard except for the nominative plural, which is -і rather than expected *-и. An example is. To indicate this type, use an override (see below):



which produces

A small number of nouns are hard in the singular but soft in the plural, or vice-versa. These nouns generally have other irregularities, such as having a different stem in the plural. An example is, which has soft endings in the plural based off of a stem друз- (nominative plural дру́зі, instrumental plural дру́зями, etc.):



which produces

Here we specify:
 * 1)   to indicate that this is a personal noun (accusative singular and plural are the same as the genitive singular and plural, respectively);
 * 2)   to indicate that this noun has soft endings in the plural;
 * 3)   to specify the irregular plural stem;
 * 4)   to override the vocative singular, giving it an ending -е instead of the normal ending -у for nouns ending in a velar. (This automatically triggers the, giving the form дру́же. See below under automatic palatalization of velars.)

Vowel alternations
Similar to reducible alternations, some nouns have alternations between і and either о or е. Generally the і appears in the last syllable of a word with an ending not beginning with a vowel (similar to the reducible variant where a fill vowel is present), and the о or е appears in its place with an ending beginning with a vowel (similar to the reducible variant with no fill vowel). The cognate words in Russian and Polish generally have an о or е in all forms, showing that the і is a Ukrainian-specific development. An example is, with genitive singular о́бода, nominative plural о́боди, etc. This is indicated using  to specify that an і in the lemma changes into an о in forms with an ending beginning with a vowel:



which produces

In some nouns, the sequence лі changes to льо rather than ло. To indicate this change, use, as in , with genitive singular вертольо́та:



which produces

Examples of other nouns with this change are,. Note that in some nouns, лі changes to ло, e.g., , ,.

To indicate that the і changes into an е, use, as in , with genitive singular ведме́дя:



which produces

The code  should also be used for nouns with orthographic ї that changes into є, as in, with genitive singular Ки́єва:



which produces

( is a specific form override.)

Feminines in -а and -я, and neuters in -о, -е and -я, that have a vowel alternation will have it in the opposite direction, with an о or е in the lemma changing into an і in the genitive plural. This should be indicated using, as in , with genitive plural шкіл:



which produces

Note that feminines ending in a consonant or in -ь will have the same sort of alternation as in masculines, for example with genitive ре́чі:



which produces

Such nouns have the і variant not only in the nominative and accusative singular but also in the instrumental singular, here рі́ччю.

Some reducible masculine nouns have an о or е in the lemma that changes into an і in most other forms, the opposite of the pattern of the majority of masculine nouns. An example is, with genitive singular вдівця́:



which produces

Special variants
There are various miscellaneous codes that can be used to indicate special variant declensions.

Nouns in -ин
Some nouns in -ин lose this ending in the plural. An example is (nominative plural кия́ни). For these nouns, use :



which produces

These nouns have an empty genitive plural ending in place of normal -ів (e.g. кия́н).

If the stress is on the ending, it automatically moves to the preceding syllable in the plural. An example is (nominative plural христия́ни). See for an example showing how this noun is declined.

Third-declension feminine nouns
Third-declension feminine nouns are those whose singular ends in -ь or a consonant rather than -я or -а. Normally this is autodetected, but this is not possible in the plural, where the ending -і is the same as for nouns ending in -я. To indicate this type of noun, use. See the section on number for an example.

Surnames
Use  to indicate that the noun is a surname, in which case the vocative singular can be the same as the nominative singular in addition to its normal form. An example is :



which produces

The use of  automatically implies , since surnames almost always refer to people and hence are personal nouns.

t-stem neuters
Use  to indicate a t-stem neuter noun, i.e. a neuter noun that ends in -я and has a stem -ят in most forms. An example is (genitive singular ягня́ти, nominative plural ягня́та):



which produces

Note that  automatically implies   and , as nouns of this form are always neuter and usually refer to the young of animals. An exception where animacy  needs to be given is, which is a personal t-stem neuter; see animacy for the declension of this noun. Another such exception is (literally "young chickens"; plural of ). This can be indicated as follows:



which produces

en-stem neuters
Use  to indicate an en-stem neuter noun, i.e. a neuter noun that ends in -м'я and has an alternative stem -ен in most forms. An example is with alternative genitive/dative/locative singular ви́мені and alternative instrumental singular ви́менем:



which produces

As with,   automatically implies.

Stem overrides
Some nouns have an irregular stem compared with the lemma, either in all forms whose ending begins with a vowel or in all plural forms. An example of the former is, with stem тижн- (e.g. genitive singular ти́жня, nominative plural ти́жні). To specify this, use :



which produces

Note here that we specify  to indicate a reducible noun, even though we override the stem. It's not actually necessary to specify, but it affects the categorization and what is displayed in the title bar.

Some nouns, especially neuter nouns, have a distinct stem in the plural. An example is, with plural stem дере́в- (note the stress), e.g. nominative plural дере́ва. To specify this, use :



which produces

Specific form overrides
Specific forms can be overridden. The way to specify this is either  to specify the ending(s) of a given slot (i.e. a case/number combination),   to specify the whole form(s) of a given slot. Note the difference: When specifying endings, attach the ending(s) directly to the slot name, while when specifying forms, separate the slot name and form(s) with a colon. In both cases, separate endings and forms from each other using a colon. The endings and forms can be given either using Cyrillic letters or transliterated Roman letters; in the latter case, the Roman letters are reverse-transliterated to get the Cyrillic. The use of Roman letters is conventional when specifying endings, because these sorts of overrides are much more frequent than full form overrides, and Roman letters are easier to type when the slot name is also written using Roman letters.

Ending overrides
An example override is, which specifies that the genitive singular ends in -у (transliterated -u). This particular override is extremely frequent, as entire classes of masculine nouns require genitive in -у instead of the default -а. An example is :



which produces

Normally, an ending override overrides the ending itself but not the stress pattern, which remains as it would normally be. For example, when  is used with a noun of stress pattern , the ending will be stressed, as is normal for this stress pattern. An example is :



which produces

To explicitly specify ending stress, place an accent on the ending, as with, which is stem-stressed (pattern ) except that it has an irregular locative виду́:



which produces

To explicitly specify stem stress when the stress pattern calls for ending stress, place an accent on the vowel of the slot name, as with, which is ending-stressed (pattern ) except that it has an irregular genitive су́ду:



which produces

As mentioned above, separate multiple endings with a colon, as with, which irregularly has locative singular either очере́ту or очере́ті and nominative plural either очере́та or очере́ти:



which produces

In more complicated cases, a given slot can be listed more than once. For example, mostly follows stress pattern , but has irregular genitive either стола́ or сто́лу. This can be specified as follows:



which produces

Note that for clarity, the genitive singular overrides could also be given as  to make the stress pattern of these forms completely clear.

Full overrides
Most irregularities in Ukrainian nouns involve irregular endings, but occasionally an irregular stem appears as well. If the irregular stem appears throughout the plural, or throughout the singular and plural except for the lemma, a stem override can be used (see above), but if the irregular stem is in only one or two forms, a full form override must be used. An example is, with irregular genitive plural стате́й:



which produces

Here we specify the gender  (otherwise the noun would be inferred as neuter), and the stress pattern   (otherwise the noun would be inferred as pattern  ).

Another example involving the genitive plural is, with irregular genitive plural ове́ць:



which produces

Null and missing overrides
To specify that a given form has a null ending, use  as the ending. An example is, which has genitive plural either хоза́р (with a null ending) or хоза́рів (with the regular ending -ів):



which produces

When  is used in a full override, it indicates that this particular form is entirely missing. An example is, which per Goroh Slovozmina has no genitive plural:



which produces

Note the difference between this and the preceding example. This example uses a full override (colon directly follows ), while the preceding example uses an ending override (no colon directly after  ).

Missing overrides can be useful in spec alternations in place of a full or ending override, when the other of the two alternatives in the alternation already specifies all the possible forms for a given slot. See more complex examples for an example of this.

Overrides and derived forms
Certain forms are derived from others, in that the forms in one slot are copied to another slot. Specifically: This has implications for overrides. Specifically, overrides of source slots (nominative singular, genitive singular, nominative plural, genitive plural) are implemented ***before*** copying to derived slots, but overrides of derived slots (accusative singular, accusative plural, vocative singular, vocative plural) are implemented ***after*** copying. This means that overrides of source slots such as the nominative and genitive plural will automatically be propagated to the slots derived from them, but overrides of derived slots is still possible.
 * The accusative plural of all nouns is derived from either the nominative singular, the genitive singular or both, depending on animacy.
 * The vocative plural of all nouns is derived from the nominative plural.
 * The accusative singular of masculine nouns is derived from either the nominative singular or genitive singular, depending on animacy.
 * The vocative singular of surnames (those with the  code) is derived from the nominative singular in addition to whatever the form would normally be.

For example, in the preceding example with, where a genitive plural override ове́ць was given, the accusative plural will also have ове́ць as one of the two possibilities (along with ві́вці, derived from the nominative plural). Similarly, in the earlier example above with, where a nominative plural ending override  is given to specify that the nominative plural should be either очере́та or очере́ти, both forms will also be found in the accusative and vocative plural.

An example of overriding a derived slot is, which has an irregular alternative vocative plural пано́ве as well as the regular vocative plural пани́ derived from the nominative plural. This can be specified as follows:



which produces

Slot names for overrides
The slot names are as follows:

Automatic palatalization of velars
Certain endings, when used as overrides (as well as when they are the default), automatically trigger the or  of velar consonants. Specifically: The palatalizations are as follows:
 * The ending -е in the vocative singular triggers the Slavic first palatalization.
 * The ending -і in the dative or locative singular triggers the Slavic second palatalization.

An example is. The default vocative singular ending for masculines ending in a velar is -у, but this noun has vocative singular чолові́че. To specify this, just use a regular ending override, and the first palatalization will automatically apply, converting к into ч:



which produces

Another example is. The default locative singular ending for inanimate masculines ending in a velar is -у, but this noun has locative singular ро́зі. As above, use a regular ending override, and the second palatalization will automatically apply:



which produces

Default forms for specific slots
The rules for which endings are used by default in specific slots (e.g. locative singular) are fairly complicated. This is because Ukrainian nouns are complex, often with multiple possible endings allowed for a given slot and with many exceptions.

Genitive singular

 * Masculine nouns default to -а (or -я for soft nouns) in most cases, but default to -у (or -ю for soft nouns) in singular-only common nouns (not singular-only proper nouns). The default of -а/-я is correct for essentially all animate nouns, and the default of -у/-ю is correct for almost all singular-only common nouns. However, there are many inanimate singular/plural common nouns, and many inanimate proper nouns, that need a  or   override. The particular ending used is a function of the semantic category of the noun. For example, names of cities use -а/-я, but names of states and countries use -у/-ю; words referring to most types of objects use -а/-я, but words referring to materials use -у/-ю. Hence,  (a city) uses -а, but  (a country) uses -у, and  uses -а, but  uses -у.

Locative singular
The rules for the locative singular of masculine nouns are quite complex.
 * For velar-stem nouns:
 * Animate nouns use either -ові or -у.
 * Reducible inanimate nouns also use either -ові or -у.
 * Non-reducible inanimate nouns use -у.
 * For non-velar hard-stem nouns:
 * Animate nouns use either -ові or -і.
 * Inanimate singular-only nouns use either -у or -і.
 * Inanimate singular/plural nouns use -і.
 * For soft-stem nouns:
 * Animate nouns use either -еві, -ю or -і.
 * Inanimate nouns use either -ю or -і.
 * Semisoft-stem nouns are analogous to soft-stem nouns:
 * Animate nouns use either -еві, -у or -і.
 * Inanimate nouns use either -у or -і.

Vocative singular
FILL IN

Genitive plural
FILL IN

Spec alternations
Some nouns have declensions with multiple possible stress patterns, or which appear to be composed of the union of multiple individual declensions. This can be handled using a spec alternation. A basic example is, also stressable as :



which produces

Note the format: Two (or more) full declension specifications, comma-separated, surrounded by double parentheses.

If both declensions overlap in some forms, the forms will be deduplicated, and will only appear once. For example, has nominative plural христия́ни (where -ин disappears in the plural), and has an alternative stress pattern, with the same nominative plural христия́ни (here again, -ин disppears in the plural, and since it is stressed, the stress moves onto the previous syllable). This can be specified as follows:



which produces

Note how the plural has only one form per slot.

There is no requirement that the lemmas in the two alternative specifications have different stress patterns, or that the associated specifications inside of  are the same. For example, has two alternative declensions, one with an і -> е alternation (genitive singular сту́пеня) and the other with vowel reduction (genitive singular сту́пня). This can be specified as follows:



which produces

More complex examples
1. has the following forms: The dative, instrumental and locative plural have both soft and hard endings, with different stress patterns. This suggests that a spec alternation could be used. Since the nominative plural only has hard endings, the soft alternative needs to use a soft-ending lemma and override the nominative plural. The result is as follows:
 * Nominative/accusative/vocative plural: штани́
 * Genitive plural: штані́в
 * Dative plural: шта́ням, штана́м
 * Instrumental plural: шта́нями, штана́ми, штаньми́
 * Locative plural: шта́нях, штана́х



which produces

The first alternative captures the soft stem-stressed forms, with a missing nominative plural override (see null and missing overrides above) and the reversed genitive-stress indicator. The second alternative captures the hard ending-stressed forms, and specifies an instrumental plural override to capture the additional form штаньми́.

2. has mostly regular forms in the singular, with an і-о vowel alternation (e.g. genitive singular чо́бота) but has irregular locative singular чо́боту, чо́боті as well as the following forms in the plural: It is possible to use a spec alternation as in the previous example (where the second alternative uses  and  ), but in this case it may be simpler just to explicitly specify the irregular plural forms using full overrides:
 * Nominative/accusative/vocative plural: чо́боти
 * Genitive plural: чобі́т
 * Dative plural: чо́ботам, чобо́тям
 * Instrumental plural: чо́ботами, чобітьми́
 * Locative plural: чо́ботах, чобо́тях



which produces

Note the use of an ending override in the instrumental plural. Since the specified instrumental plural ending -ьми́ does not begin with a vowel, the non-vowel alternant with і instead of о is used. A full override would also be possible; conversely, an ending override could be used in the genitive plural, with a reversed genitive-plural stress indicator, i.e..

The shortest equivalent using a spec alternation would be as follows:



Note that this is even longer than the specification using full overrides, and harder to understand.