The gender in the Russian language

How to determine gender in the Russian language? What are the exceptions in these categories? And what are the most common Russian words which end on the soft sign?

The gender in the Russian language.

Unlike in English, all Russian nouns are divided into three groups: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Every single noun (person, place, or thing) in Russian is determined by the last letter in the word (or last two letters sometimes).

The Masculine ones

The words which end on a consonant or ‘й’ are masculine:

телефóн – [ telifón ] – a phone

герóй – [ ghiróy ] – a hero

We consider the words like ‘пáпа‘ (a daddy), ‘дéдушка‘ (a grandpa), ‘дя́дя‘ (an uncle), ‘ю́ноша‘ (a young man), ‘мужчи́на‘ ( a man) are masculine as well.

 

How about the Feminine

The words which end on the letters ‘а’ and ‘я’ are feminine.

дáма – [ dáma ] – a lady

сéрия – [ syériya ] – an episode

 

The neuter in Russian

The words which end on the letters ‘о’, ‘е’ and ‘мя’ are neuter.

мóре – [ móre ] – the sea

окнó – [ aknó ] – a window

и́мя – [ ímya ] – a name

врéмя – [ vryémya ] – time

If you enjoy practicing the vocabulary in the Quizlet you can find some words to practice here.

Still, we have the words which can end on ‘ь‘ and we have to be very careful, determining their gender. They can be either masculine or feminine.

These words must be looked up in the dictionary as there is no rule on how to know what gender they are.

These are the most common words that you can see while practicing the A0-A1 levels in the Russian language.

feminine

дóчь – [ doch ] – a daughter

нóчь – [ noch ] – a night

мáть – [ mat ] – a mother

двéрь – [ dvyer ] – a door

мышь – [ mysh ] – a mouse

жизнь – [ zhizn ] – a life

пóмощь – [ pómasch ] – help

 

masculine

дéнь – [ dyen ] – a day

пáрень – [ páryen ] – a boyfriend / a young man

As you can see, most of the words which end on ‘ь’ are feminine here.

To sound like a native you can read the article about the 5 best tips on how to lose your accent and speak the Russian language well!

 

 

IMPORTANT! TEST PRACTICE: In the boxes, choose ONLY the answers which seem correct.  When finished, you will get the answers and their explanations.