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Hard Stems and Soft Stems
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Nouns of masculine, feminine and neuter gender have hard
stems or soft stems.
- Hard stem ends in a hard consonant: äîì-Ø,
ëàìï-à, îêí-î
(final ì, ï, í are hard in these words).
- Soft stem ends in a soft consonant: ñëîâàð-ü,
ïåñí-ÿ, ìîð-å
(final ð, í, ð are soft in these words).
We
learned earlier that a hard consonant is indicated by the vowels à, î, ó, ý, û;
a soft consonant is indicated by the vowels ÿ, ¸, þ, å, è
and the soft sign ü.
If a paired consonant is the last
letter in a word it is considered hard (see Pronunciation and
Spelling Guide for more details and examples).
- Soft stems of masculine nouns are indicated by
the letters -é and -ü (soft sign): ìóçåé,
ñëîâàðü.
- Soft stems of feminine nouns are indicated by -ÿ
and -ü:
ïåñíÿ, äâåðü.
- Soft stems of neuter nouns are indicated by -¸
and -å:
ðóæü¸, ìîðå.
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For the nouns that end in ü, you must learn their gender when you learn the words.
Feminine nouns that end in
ü are labeled as f.or æ., in the word lists and
dictionaries, for example: äâåðü æ. - door (if a noun
that ends in ü has no special label, it is masculine).
æ. (= æåíñêèé ðîä ) - f.
(=feminine);
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Compare the spelling and pronunciation of hard and soft stem nouns.
Click the words to listen.
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äîì-Ø
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ìóçå-é
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house, museum
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ñëîâàð-ü
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dictionary
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ëàìï-à
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ïåñí-ÿ
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lamp, song
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äâåð-ü
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door
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îêí-î
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ðóæü-¸
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window, gun
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ìîð-å
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sea
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2.
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Exceptions: Masculine or Feminine?
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All nouns referring to men and boys are masculine, even though some of them end in
-à or -ÿ. For example: ïàïà - dad,
äåäóøêà - grandfather, äÿäÿ - uncle, and many
men's and boy's nicknames: Ìèøà,
Ñåð¸æà, Âàíÿ,
etc.
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Exercises Óïðàæíåíèÿ |
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| Vocabulary building: memorize the gender of
most common nouns that end in ü |
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| Practice determining the gender of nouns
(focus on nouns that end in ü and exceptions) |
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| Practice determining the gender of nouns
(focus on nouns that end in ü and exceptions) |
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