Gender in Russian
One of the main differences between Russian and English is the fact that every Russian noun belongs to one of the 3 genders: masculine, feminine or neuter.
Knowing the gender of a noun is important as it affects the endings the noun takes in different cases.
It’s quite easy to figure out the gender when we are talking about people, but what to do when the noun is inanimate? The answer is: look at the word’s ending.
Feminine nouns
The feminine nouns end in -А, -Я or -Ь.
Examples:
– кни́га [knée-ga] – book
– неде́ля [nee-dyé-lya] – week
– ночь [noch’] – night
Neuter nouns
The neuter nouns end in -O, -Е. Examples:
– о́блако [ób-la-ka] – cloud
– зна́ние [zná-nee-ye] – knowledge
– со́лнце [són-tse] – sun
Masculine nouns
The masculine nouns often have no ending, i.e. the last letter is a consonant. Sometimes they end on -Ь (as the feminine nouns, do not get confused). Examples:
– день [dyen’] – day
– год [got] – year
Exceptions
There is also a number of exceptions. For example, some words are masculine despite their endings:
– пáпа [pá-pa] – dad
– дя́дя [dyá-dya] – uncle
– ко́фе [kó-fye] – coffee
These words are neuter despite ending in -Я:
– вре́мя [vryé-mya] – time
– и́мя [ée-mya] – name
Some words can be masculine and feminine at the same time:
– колле́га [kal-lyé-ga] – colleague
– копу́ша [ka-pú-sha] – slowpoke
Now, you are familiar with the gender in Russian and know how to determine a gender of a Russian noun. Practice all these words with the audio recording. And come back to learn Russian in the next lesson!
The offline version of this lesson is available here
Start the quiz-
Question # 1What gender:гру́ша (pear)
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
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Question # 2What gender:стол (table)
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
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Question # 3What gender:де́рево (tree)
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
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Question # 4What gender:со́лнце (sun)
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
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Question # 5What gender:телеви́зор (TV set)
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
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Question # 6What gender:стена́ (wall)
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
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Question # 7What gender:журна́л (magazine)
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
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Question # 8What gender:по́мощь (help)
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
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Question # 9What gender:иде́я (idea)
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
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Question # 10What gender:но́мер (number)
- masculine
- feminine
- neuter
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More lessons on the Russian nouns
- Gender in Russian
- Plural in Russian
I have also taken a test on genders from the link on this page,
слуга is placed in Masculine how?
Its ending in ‘A’ right?
should it not be neuter ? a servant can be of any sex, unless we know that its a He/She, it should be addressed as Neuter, right?
Hello Sachin,
Слуга is indeed masculine. Служанка is feminine. As you might have already noticed, there are quite a few exeptions of the basic rules in Russian.
If a word can be masculine and feminine at the same time (for example, копуша – slowpoke), their gender is masculine or feminine depending of context, but not neuter.
The neuter gender is a separate category.
masculine nouns often have no ending, sometimes they me end with a soft sign as understood from the above lesson.
Your very example ‘ночь’ is placed under feminine, why?
It ends with a consonant and is also followed by a soft sign.
Regards,
Sachin
Hello Sachin,
Thanks for the question.
In Russian, both masculine and feminine nouns can end in -Ь. And since -Ь always follows a consonant, it is always a consonant and the soft sign.
However, in most cases (if not all), the nouns ending in -ЧЬ are feminine:
– ночь (night)
– дочь (daughter)
– горечь (bitterness)
– печь (stove)
How can I learn the most essential words in Russian?
Hello Röyal,
You can use an app, like Memrise, Google it, or/and check out these links:
– https://learnrussianwords.com/tag/easy-russian/
– https://learnrussianwords.com/tag/essential-russian/
– https://learnrussianwords.com/tag/basic-russian/
Hi! I want to build up some Russian vocabulary. How can I find the most essential nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns and adverbs? If it is not the right time to learn them, then please show me the rightest way.
Thanks for your feedback.
Thank You Very Much… this is great