Editing Russian orthography (section)

===Grammatical principle===
The '''grammatical''' principle has become stronger in contemporary Russian.  It specifies conventional orthographic forms to mark grammatic distinctions (gender, participle vs. adjective, and so on).  Some of these rules are ancient, and could perhaps be considered etymological; some are based in part on subtle, and not necessarily universal, distinctions in pronunciation; and some are practically arbitrary.  Some characteristic examples follow.

For nouns ending in a sibilant -{{angbr|ж}} {{IPA|/ʐ/}}, -{{angbr|ш}} {{IPA|/ʂ/}}, -{{angbr|щ}} {{IPA|/ɕː/}}, -{{angbr|ч}} {{IPA|/t͡ɕ/}}, a [[soft sign]] {{angbr|ь}} is appended in the nominative singular if the gender is feminine, and is not appended if masculine:
{| align=center cellpadding=6
|-
| '''дочь''' || {{IPA|[dot͡ɕ]}} || daughter '''F''' || -
|-
| '''меч''' || {{IPA|[mʲet͡ɕ]}} || sword '''M''' || -
|-
| '''грач''' || {{IPA|[ɡrat͡ɕ]}} || rook (''Corvus frugilegus'') '''M''' || modern levelling; [[Mikhail Lomonosov|Lomonosov]] (1755) gives ''грачь''
|}
: Neither of the aforementioned consonants has phonemically distinct [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] and unpalatalized variants. Hence, the use of {{angbr|ь}} in these examples is not to indicate a different pronunciation, but to help distinguish different grammatical genders. A common noun ending in a consonant without -{{angbr|ь}} is masculine while a noun ending in -{{angbr|ь}} is often feminine (though  there are some masculine nouns ending in a "soft" consonant, with the -{{angbr|ь}} marking a different pronunciation).
: Though based on common ancient etymology, by which a hard sign '''ъ''' was appended to masculine nouns before 1918, both symbols having once been pronounced as ultra-short ("reduced") vowels (called ''[[yer]]s'' in Slavic studies), the modern rule is nevertheless grammatical, because its application has been made more nearly universal.

The past passive participle has a doubled -{{angbr|'''нн'''}}- {{IPA|/nn/}}, while the same word used as an adjective has a single -{{angbr|'''[[н]]'''}}- {{IPA|/n/}}:
{| align=center cellpadding=6
|-
| '''варёный''' || {{IPA|[vɐˈrʲɵ.nɨj]}} || 'cooked/boiled'
|-
| '''варенный''' || {{IPA|[ˈva.rʲɪn.nɨj]}} || '(something that has) been cooked/boiled'
|-
| '''жареный''' || {{IPA|[ˈʐa.rʲɪ.nɨj]}} || 'fried'
|-
| '''жаренный''' || {{IPA|[ˈʐa.rʲɪn.nɨj]}} || '(something that has) been fried'
|}
:This rule is partly guided by pronunciation, but the geminated pronunciation is not universal. The rule is therefore considered one of the difficult points of Russian spelling, since the distinction between adjective (implying state) and participle (implying action) is not always clear. A proposal in the late 1990s to simplify this rule by basing the distinction on whether or not the verb is transitive has not been formally adopted.

Prepositional phrases in which the literal meaning is preserved are written with the words separated; when used adverbially, especially if the meaning has shifted, they are usually written as a single word:
{| align=center cellpadding=6
|-
| '''во время (чего-либо)''' || {{IPA|[vɐ ˈvrʲe.mʲə]}} || 'during the time (of something)'
|-
| '''(он пришёл) вовремя''' || {{IPA|[ˈvovrʲɪmʲə]}} || '(he arrived) on time'
|}
: (This is extracted from a whole set of extremely detailed rules about run-together, hyphenated, or separated components. Such rules are essentially arbitrary.  There are enough sub-cases, exceptions, undecidable points, and inconsistencies that even well-educated native speakers sometimes have to check in a dictionary.  Arguments about this issue have been continuous for 150 years.)