Nouns can belong to one of 3 genders in Russian language: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The grammatical gender is not a physical gender, it is different things.
There are masculine(m), feminine(f), and neuter(n) genders in the Russian language.
The grammatical gender of a noun indicates the belonging to one of the three pronouns – ОН, ОНА, ОНО (he, she, it).
For example:
КОМПЬЮТЕР, ОН МОЙ – a computer, it is mine (masculine)
МАШИНА, ОНА МОЯ – a car, it is mine (feminine)
ПИВО, ОНО МОЁ – beer, it is mine (neuter)
So, in English we use “it” for all words when we say “it is mine”, but in Russian we say “he is mine, she is mine, it is mine” for all words but not only people.
How to distinguish these genders? Definitely, by endings:
Masculine: endings with consonant sounds;
Feminine: endings with vowels and soft sign –Ь.
Neuter: -О, -Е.
There are some exceptions, where ending of grammatical gender doesn’t match same physical gender. These words are: ДЯДЯ – uncle, ДЕДУШКА – grandfather, МУЖЧИНА – man, ПАПА – dad.
EXAMPLES:
СЫН – son(m), ДОЧЬ – daughter(f), МАТЬ – mother(f), ОТЕЦ – father(m), ЗДАНИЕ – building(n) , ПОСТЕЛЬ – bed(f), ДИВАН – sofa(m), ВИНО – wine(n).
МОЙ СЫН, ТВОЯ ДОЧЬ My son, your daughter
НАШЕ ВИНО ВКУСНОЕ Our wine is tasty
ИХ ДОМ ОЧЕНЬ БОЛЬШОЙ Their house is very big
PLURAL
Masculine nouns.
For words ending in a voiced consonant (Б, В, Г, Д, Л, М, Н, Р) or Ъ – add [-Ы].
For words ending in an unvoiced consonant (К, Т, Ш, Щ, П, Ф, Х, Ч) or Ь — add [-И].
For words ending in –ОК, -ЕЦ change the ending to –КИ, -ЦЫ.
Feminine nouns.
For words ending in –Я or –Ь, replace –Я or -И with –И.
For words ending in –A, replace –А with –Ы, but if there is one of these consonants Г, К, Х, Ж, Ч, Ш, Щ before –А, replace –А with -И.
Neuter nouns
Replace [-Е] with [-Я], and [-О] with [-А]
Examples
ОТЕЛЬ(m) – ОТЕЛИ hotel – hotels
ТЕАТР(m) – ТЕАТРЫ theater – theaters
КНИГА(f) – КНИГИ book – books
КОМАНДА(f) – КОМАНДЫ team – teams
РАСПИСАНИЕ(n) – РАСПИСАНИЯ schedule – schedules
СОРЕВНОВАНИЕ(n) – СОРЕВНОВАНИЯ competition – competitions
СОБЕСЕДОВАНИЕ(n) – СОБЕСЕДОВАНИЯ job interview – job interviews
ЧИСЛО(n) – ЧИСЛА number – numbers
There are many irregular plural nouns; these are the most used:
ДРУГ – ДРУЗЬЯ friend-friends
ДЕРЕВО – ДЕРЕВЬЯ tree-trees
БРАТ – БРАТЬЯ brother-brothers
СЕСТРА – СЁСТРЫ sister-sisters
СТУЛ – СТУЛЬЯ chair-chairs
МАТЬ – МАТЕРИ mother-mothers
ДОЧЬ – ДОЧЕРИ daughter-daughter
АДРЕС – АДРЕСА address-addresses
ГЛАЗ – ГЛАЗА eye-eyes
ГОРОД – ГОРОДА city-cities
ДОМ – ДОМА house-houses
ЦВЕТ – ЦВЕТА color-colors
ЧЕЛОВЕК – ЛЮДИ human-humans
РЕБЁНОК – ДЕТИ child-children
РОТ – РТЫ mouth-mouths
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