| Russian grammar and vocabulary. Unit 1 | Grammar Lesson 1
Gender of Nouns: Hard Stem. Personal pronouns он (he), она (she), оно (it). "The" and "a"."To be" in the Present tense | Grammar Lesson 2
Gender of Nouns: Hard and Soft Stems. Exceptions | Grammar Lesson 3
Nominative Plural of Nouns | Grammar Lesson 4
Personal Pronouns я, ты, он, она, оно, мы, вы, они. Ты vs. Вы | Phrasebook Topic 3
Professions | Phrasebook Topic 4
Learn Russian Names: Last Name, First Name and Patronimic | Quiz 5
Check what you have learned from Grammar Lessons 1-4 and Phrasebook Topics 3-4 with this 20 minute quiz. | Test 1
Check what you have learned from Russian Letters and Sound System section and Grammar Lessons 1-4 |
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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: дом-Ø,
ламп-а, окн-о
(final м, п, н are hard in these words).
- Soft stem ends in a soft consonant: словар-ь,
песн-я, мор-е
(final р, н, р are soft in these words).
We
learned earlier that a hard consonant is indicated by the vowels а, о, у, э, ы;
a soft consonant is indicated by the vowels я, ё, ю, е, и
and the soft sign ь.
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 -й and -ь (soft sign): музей,
словарь.
- Soft stems of feminine nouns are indicated by -я
and -ь:
песня, дверь.
- Soft stems of neuter nouns are indicated by -ё
and -е:
ружьё, море.
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For the nouns that end in ь, you must learn their gender when you learn the words.
Feminine nouns that end in
ь are labeled as f.or ж., in the word lists and
dictionaries, for example: дверь ж. - door (if a noun
that ends in ь has no special label, it is masculine).
ж. (= женский род ) - 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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дом-Ø
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музе-й
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house, museum
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словар-ь
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dictionary
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ламп-а
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песн-я
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lamp, song
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двер-ь
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door
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окн-о
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ружь-ё
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window, gun
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мор-е
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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
-а or -я. For example: папа - dad,
дедушка - grandfather, дядя - uncle, and many
men's and boy's nicknames: Миша,
Серёжа, Ваня,
etc.
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Exercises Упражнения |
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| Vocabulary building: memorize the gender of
most common nouns that end in ь |
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| Practice determining the gender of nouns
(focus on nouns that end in ь and exceptions) |
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| Practice determining the gender of nouns
(focus on nouns that end in ь and exceptions) |
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