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Russian/Grammar/
Gender
< Russian | Grammar

This page explains the concept of gender

in language. If you have studied another
language that has gender, such as
French or Spanish, and so are familiar
with grammatical gender, feel free to skip
this section.

What gender is
'Gender' is a way of categorising nouns in
a language. In most languages, words
are described as being 'masculine' or
'feminine', and a lot of languages,
including Russian, also have words
described as 'neuter' (i.e., neutral, or no
gender). In languages like French, the
gender of a particular word is mostly
arbitrary: there's nothing in the word peau
('skin') that tells us it's a feminine word,
and so a word's gender is largely just
something you have to learn. Fortunately,
in Russian, gender can be predicted. Like
most other things in Russian, the gender
of a noun is denoted by what letters are
on the end of the word:
Masculine nouns end in a consonant:
б, в, г, д, ж, з, й к, л, м, н, п, р, с, т, ф,
х, ч, ц, ш, or щ. Notice that й is a
consonant. For example, кролик (KRO-
leek, 'rabbit') ends in a consonant, -к,
so it is a masculine word.
Feminine nouns end in а or я. For
example, собака (so-BA-ka, 'dog') ends
in an -a, so it is a feminine word.
Neuter nouns end in о or е. For
example, письмо (pees-MO, 'letter')
ends in an -o, so it is grammatically
neuter.
Nouns ending in -ь can be either
masculine or feminine. These just have
to be memorised.
So, in Russian, nouns have an intrinsic
property called 'gender', which comes in
three types: masculine, feminine, and
neuter. But why is this important?

What gender is for

To learn Russian, you have to be able to
know the gender of a noun when you use
it. When you modify a noun with an
adjective ('nice dog', 'Red Square', 'old
door'), the adjective changes its ending
to match the gender of the word it's
modifying. So although adjectives don't
have an intrinsic gender, they have a
number of different endings they can use
to match the gender of their noun. The
same is true for possessive pronouns:
the 'my' in 'my dog' (моя собака) and 'my
table' (мой стол) are different, as the
gender of 'dog' (собака, f) and 'table'
(стол, m) are different. Personal
pronouns (I, we, they, etc) don't usually
have any inherent gender, instead taking
on the gender of the thing they're
referring to - though third-person singular
pronouns do have specific genders: он
('he'), она ('she'), and оно ('it'). Gender
also influences how you form the past
tense of verbs: The 'wrote' in 'He wrote'
(он написал) and 'she wrote' (она
написала) are different, as the genders
of the subject of the verb, 'he' and 'she',
are different.
So, gender affects a lot of different parts
of Russian grammar, and so is an
important part of learning Russian.
Fortunately, it's easy to learn, and easy to
use.

Plurals
Russian uses plurals in much the same
way as English. The rules for forming the
plural depend on which grammatical
case the word is in. However, the
important thing here is that the rules are
largely the same for all nouns, regardless
of gender. This carries over into
adjectives too: the endings they take on
when their noun is plural, are
independent of gender. There's no
'masculine plural' and 'feminine plural' -
there's just, 'plural'.

As such, it is perhaps easiest to think of

plurals as a 'fourth gender', and this is the
way summary tables in this Wikibook will
be presented.

Examples
This section lists some common words
by their gender.

Masculine

Стол - Table
Стул - Chair
Театр - Theatre
Музей - Museum
Мужчина - Man
Брат - Brother
Сын - Son
Отец - Father
Муж - Husband
Дядя - Uncle (though it has a
'feminine' ending and conjugates like a
feminine noun, 'uncle' is 'inherently'
masculine, and so дядя is too)
Поезд - Train
Самолёт - Plane
Дом - House/Home
Магазин - Shop
Город - City
Кролик - Rabbit
 Конь - Horse (An adult male horse)

Feminine

Лошадь - Mare (An adult female

horse)
Книга - Book
Машина - Car
Гитара - Guitar
Россия - Russia
Англия - England
Франция - France (Note that countries
often end in -ия, which makes them
decline in unusual ways)
Женщина - Woman
Сестра - Sister
Дочь - Daughter
Мать - Mother
 Жена - Wife
Тётя - Aunt
весна - spring
земля - earth
дверь - door
мебель - furniture
жизнь - life
тетрадь - notebook

Neuter

Солнце - Sun
Небо - Sky
Письмо - Letter
Лето - Summer
Золото - Gold
Молоко - Milk
Мясо - Meat
 Тело - Body
Равновесие - Balance
кресло = armchair
море =sea
платье =dress

Plural

Столы - Tables
Стулья - Chairs
Театры - Theatres
Музеи - Museums
Мужчины - Men
Братья - Brothers
Сыновья/Сыны - Sons
Отцы - Fathers
Мужья - Husbands
Дяди - Uncles
Поезда - Trains
Самолёты - Planes
Дома - Houses
Магазины - Shops
Города - Cities
Кролики - Rabbits
Кони - Horses (Adult male horses)
Лошади - Horses
Книги - Books
Машины - Cars
Гитары - Guitars
Женщины - Women
Сёстры - Sisters
Дочери - Daughters
Матери - Mothers
Жены - Wives
Тёти - Aunts
 Письма - Letters
Тела - Bodies
Russian language · Русский язык
(view)
Lessons Introduction · Alphabet · Lesson 1 · Lesson 2 · Lesson 3 · Lesson 4 · Lesson 5
(edit)
Numbers · Cases (Nom. · Gen. · Dat. · Acc. · Inst. · Prep.) · Adjectives · Prepositions · Verbs (Aspect · Past · Future) ·
Reference
Pronouns (Personal · Possessive · Interrogative) · Cursive

Appendices Appendix · Alphabet · Internet · Cheat Sheet

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