Russian Noun Gender: Masculine, Feminine, Neuter and Plurals

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

The whole system on one screen

In order: table, museum; book, week; window, sea; day, night. The agreement shows on the word for my:

• мой стол, моя́ кни́га, моё окно́ - my table, my book, my window

Two things break the pattern, and both are covered below: nouns in a soft sign, and men's words ending in -а.

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!

The soft sign: learn the gender with the word

A noun ending in -ь can be masculine or feminine, and nothing in the spelling tells you which.

Learn every -ь noun with a word that shows its gender, and you will never have to guess:

• хоро́ший день - a good day
• хоро́шая ночь - a good night

One small help: after ж, ш, ч and щ, a final -ь means feminine, as in ночь.

Папа and дядя: men in -а

Grammar follows meaning for people. Па́па (dad), дя́дя (uncle), де́душка (grandad) and мужчи́на (man) end in -а or -я, but they are men, so they are masculine.

• Э́то мой па́па. - This is my dad.
• Э́то мой дя́дя. - This is my uncle.

• мой па́паmy dad
• мой дя́дяmy uncle
• мой де́душкаmy grandad
• мужчи́наa man

So мой, not моя́. In the cases they still change their endings like ма́ма, which is the only awkward part, and it can wait.

The plural: -ы, -и, -а

• Где мои́ журналы? - Where are my magazines?

A group of common masculine nouns take a stressed -а instead of -ы. They are worth learning as you meet them:

• дом, дома́ - house, houses
• го́род, города́ - town, towns

A few plurals are simply irregular, and the dictionary will show them: день, дни (day, days).

The spelling rule behind -и

In endings, Russian never writes ы after seven letters: г, к, х, ж, ш, щ and ч. Where the rule above would give -ы, these nouns take -и instead.

In order: books, cats, knives. This is a spelling rule, not a grammar rule: it applies to every ending in the language, and you will meet it again in the adjectives.

Он, она, оно: it takes the noun's gender

Russian has no separate word for it. A thing is он, она́ or оно́, exactly as its noun is masculine, feminine or neuter.

Calling a table he and a book she sounds odd at first. After a week it sounds normal. Russian subject pronouns has the rest of the set.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Sort ten nouns you know into three piles: masculine, feminine, neuter.
2. Say Где...? Вот он, она́, оно́ for each one.
3. Do the drill below.