Russian nouns have genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Gender is an important grammar concept that affects how a noun changes in a sentence.
The gender of animate nouns like ‘man’ or ‘mother’ relates to their physical gender. As for inanimate objects like ‘house’ or ‘book’, their gender is just a grammar concept and can be identified by noun’s ending.
Below are the basic rules to identify a noun’s gender. You can find a more detailed explanation here.
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
noun ends in consonant | noun ends in а or я | noun ends in о or е |
сок шоколад чай* | вода конфета (a candy) вафля (a waffle) | молоко вино печенье |
NOTE!
1) The letter ‘й’ looks very similar to the vowel ‘и’, but it is considered a consonant in Russian. So, nouns ending in ‘й’ are masculine.
2) The word ‘кофе’ is an exception and is considered a masculine noun. However, in recent years, using it as a neuter noun has become acceptable in colloquial speech.
Nouns can have plural forms. We’ll learn how to make plural forms in Unit 3. For now, let’s remember that plural nouns usually have ‘-ы’ or ‘-и’ ending. For example, ‘конфеты’ (confectioneries), ‘вафли’ (‘waffles’), ‘соки’ (‘juices’), ‘пряники’ (‘pryaniks’).