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Gender

Russian nouns are either masculine, feminine, or neuter. You can usually identify a noun's gender by its ending:

Masculine nouns end in a consonant. Remember that й is a consonant.

Feminine nouns end in а or я.

Neuter nouns end in о or е.

Nouns ending in ь can be masculine or feminine. There's no rule, you just have to memorize the gender of these words.

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Plural

Plural nouns can be treated as a fourth gender.

Masculine and feminine nouns generally add ы (if masculine) or change а to ы (if feminine). Those are called the "hard endings." Words with "soft endings" й (masculine), я (feminine), and ь (masculine or feminine) add и (if masculine) or change я to и (if feminine).

Neuter nouns change о to а ("hard ending"), and change е to я ("soft ending").

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7-Letter Spelling Rule

However, г, ж, к, х, ч, ш, and щ, you use и, not ы. This 7-letter spelling rule also applies to adjectives. As a memory aid, ч, ш, and щ are together in the alphabet, and г, к, and х are pronounced at the back of the mouth.

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Exceptional plurals

Some masculine nouns drop the last vowel before adding ы or и. E.g., подарок (present or gift) becomes подарки.

Some masculine nouns add a for plural. E.g., дом (house) becomes дома (houses).

Words of foreign origin ending in o, и, or у don't change between singular and plural. E.g., радио means "radio" or "radios." Note that foreign nouns with these endings also don't change in prepositional case (e.g., Colorado, Kentucky, and Peru).

For learning Russian Category Uncategorized Level Unspecified Second language English Created Apr 11, 2008 11:51 Views 1008 Share:

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  Vova 6 month(s) ago

  Why treat plural nouns as a fourth gender? )))

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