Он, она, оно: every noun has a gender

Every Russian noun is masculine, feminine or neuter, and you can almost always read the gender off the last letter. Gender matters because the words that go with a noun agree with it: мой стол (my table), моя́ кни́га (my book), моё окно́ (my window).

• мой столmy table
• моя́ кни́гаmy book
• моё окно́my window

Masculine: a consonant or -й

A noun that ends in a consonant is masculine. So is a noun ending in -й.

• Э́то мой дом. - This is my house.

This is the biggest group, and the dictionary form of most of these words is the bare stem, with no ending at all.

Feminine: -а and -я

A noun ending in -а or -я is feminine, unless it names a man.

• Э́то моя́ ма́ма. - This is my mum.

Neuter: -о and -е

A noun ending in -о or -е is neuter. Neuter is the smallest group, and it holds a lot of things and very few people.

• Э́то моё письмо́. - This is my letter.

There is also a tiny group in -мя, and two of its members are common: и́мя (name) and вре́мя (time). They end in -я but are neuter:

• Како́е краси́вое и́мя! - What a beautiful name!