Noun Gender

There are three genders in Russian: masculine, feminine and neuter. You can usually determine the gender of a noun by its ending. Here are some basic rules, although exceptions exist: Masculine gender: Word Ending in a consonant in -

Feminine gender: Word Ending in -a in - in -

Neuter gender: Word o e Ending in -o in -e in - in -

Nouns ending in the soft sign - can be either masculine or feminine: (day - masculine), (life - feminine). The best way to tell the gender of such nouns is to memorize it as you progress with your Russian language study. Remember that there are no definite or indefinite articles in Russian. The meaning of English articles "a", "an" and "the" is determined from the context and some other means, including word order, the use of plurals, demonstrative pronouns and cases.

The number of nouns

English plurals often end in -s. In Russian, there are more endings to make plurals. They are all summed up in the table:

Noun type masculine ending in a hard consonant; feminine ending in -a any nouns ending in -, -, - masculine and feminine with the stem ending in -, -, -x, -, -, -, -, neuter ending in -o neuter ending in -e

Ending for plural -

Example - - e - - - - - a o -

- - -a -

Some nouns are always singular. These are nouns that designate substances , (oxygen, copper), food products , (sugar, flour), a block of objects (furniture), some actions (hunting), feelings , (love, health), sorts of fabric (velvet), medicine (aspirin), some vegetables and berries , (potato, carrots).

Agreement with nouns

You will have to know the genders and plural forms of nouns because they influence the use of adjectives and pronouns. The basic rule is that Russian adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in gender, number and cases. Take a look at how the adjective (beautiful) changes depending on the gender and number of the noun which it describes (in the Nominative case): : Gender/number of noun masculine singular: feminine singular: neuter singular: plural: (all genders) Change in adjective