Урок 1.2. The Gender of Nouns Род существительных

Hard and Soft Variants of Nouns stem

Nouns of masculine, feminine and neuter gender have hard and soft variants of stem.

Hard stem ends in a hard consonant. Soft stem ends in a soft consonant. 

We learned earlier that the five Russian vowel sounds are spelled with one set of letters (а, о, у, э, ы) after hard consonants and with an alternative set of letters (я, ё, ю, е, и) after soft consonants (see Introduction).

Soft variants of masculine nouns are indicated by ь (soft sign).

Soft variants of feminine nouns are indicated by -я.

Soft variants of neuter nouns are indicated by -ё, -е.

Study the gender endings of the following nouns. Compare:

м.р. (он)

  стол [л] (table)

  сон [н] (dream)

  повар [р] (cook)

  *Егор [р]

  учитель [л'] (teacher)

  огонь [н'] (fire)

  календарь [р'] (calendar)

  Игорь [р']

Ø

ж.р. (она)

  весна [на] (spring)

  гора [ра] (mountain)

  *Рита [та]   Алла [ла]

  песня [н'я] (song)

  буря [р'а] (storm)

  Катя [т'а]    Оля [л'а]

-а (-я)

ср.р. (оно)

  место [то] (seat, place)

  озеро [ро] (lake)

  ружьё [й'о] (gun)

  море [р'е] (sea)

-о (-ё,-е)

*Егор, Игорь -  men's first names

*Рита, Алла, Катя, Оля - women's first names

You can see that masculine nouns have Ø ending for the Nominative. They are end in any  hard or soft consonant).

 Feminine nouns have the ending -а (for the hard variant) and -я (for the soft variant).

 Neuter nouns have the ending -о (for the hard variant) and -ё, -е (for the soft variant).

Exceptions to the rule

There are some masculine nouns ending in -а (-я) and feminine nouns ending in a soft sign. 

These nouns gender has to be learnt individually.

Memorize:

  папа (dad)

  дядя (uncle)

  дедушка (grandfather)

  вещь (thing)          дверь (door) 

  дочь (daughter)   жизнь (life)

  кровать (bed)   мебель (furniture)

  ночь (night)          площадь (urban area, square)

  соль (solt)            тетрадь (writing-book) 

 Exercises  Упражнения   Exercises  Упражнения   Exercises  Упражнения   Exercises  Упражнения

Practice determining the gender of nouns