Why is the gender of the noun? Common nouns

Instructions

Most inanimate indeclinable nouns are neuter, regardless of meaning or final vowel. The words “depot”, “”, “jury”, “interview”, “coat”, “cinema”, “alibi”, “cocoa”, “puree” are neuter. For example, a locomotive depot, an interesting interview, an irrefutable alibi.

Among these nouns there are several words whose gender is motivated by the meaning of the gender concept or by old forms. Avenue - feminine; kohlrabi - feminine; coffee is a drink, meaning masculine; salami -, female; penalty - free kick, male; sirocco - wind, masculine. For example, fresh kohlrabi, hot coffee, salami.

The gender of nouns naming persons depends on their real gender. If the word names male persons, then these nouns are masculine (dandy). If female, then the nouns are feminine (Frau, Lady).

Nouns naming persons by profession are masculine, although they can also name female persons: attaché, entertainer, maestro. For example, attache Petrov and special attache Sidorova, experienced entertainer Izmailov and famous entertainer Orlova.

The names of animals and birds usually refer to the masculine gender: zebu, chimpanzee. But if in context the noun refers to a female, then the word is feminine: the chimpanzee was nursing a baby. And only for a few words the gender is determined by the generic concept: ivasi - herring, feminine; tsetse - a fly, feminine. For example, tasty iwasi, dangerous tsetse.

Indeclinable nouns are among the compound words. The gender of such abbreviations is determined by the word in the full name. For example: the UN (United Nations, feminine) adopted a resolution, RIA (Russian Information Agency, medium) reported. But there are exceptions to this rule: TASS is authorized to declare. Although the main word here is agency.

Helpful advice

Remember the gender of some words.

Neuter nouns: bikini, bungalow, variety show, whiskey, video, blinds, zero, igloo, macrame, montpensier, pince-nez, pleated, ranch, relay, rodeo, sombrero, taboo, chassis, highway, show.

Masculine nouns: bourgeois, euro, zombie, hidalgo, impresario, caballero, curé, mafia, pony, cockatoo, UFO, porter, rentier, referee, Tokyo, Delhi, Baku, emu, effendi, Yankee.

Feminine nouns: ingénue, madam, milady, lady, feijoa, fraulein, miss.

Sources:

definition of genus
Gender of nouns

To determine the gender of nouns, you must first determine the word that answers the question who, what. This is a noun. In Russian it can be masculine, feminine and neuter.

Instructions

Determine the gender of a noun by its ending or final consonant. The masculine gender includes words ending with a consonant and ending with –y. For example, a house, a loaf. The feminine gender includes nouns ending in –a, -ya, -iya. For example, cousin, . The neuter gender includes nouns ending in -о, -е, -и. For example, a window, a dress.

See if this noun is an exception. These include nouns ending in -ь. Such nouns can be either feminine or masculine. Thus, the dictionary is masculine, and the word notebook is feminine.

Pay attention to the gender of animate nouns. These are nouns that mean living things. Such words are either feminine or masculine. Exceptions are children, who are neuter. For animate nouns, determine gender either by the natural gender or animal, or by the ending of the noun. Elephant is a masculine noun and monkey is a feminine noun.

Correctly determine the gender of nouns denoting professions. They are masculine and feminine. Moreover, most nouns denoting professions are masculine: doctor, engineer, .

Pay special attention to the gender of borrowed nouns. Nouns in a foreign language often have -i, -u, -yu, which are atypical for the Russian language. Such nouns do not change either by number or by case. The masculine gender includes names of cities and islands. The feminine gender includes female given names and surnames, names of rivers and names of newspapers. The neuter gender includes the names of inanimate objects.

note

Nouns ending in consonant and -y are always masculine.

Most feminine nouns of foreign origin end in -iya.
Nouns ending in the suffixes –onok, -enok are always masculine.

Sources:

“Grammar of the Russian language in illustrations”, Pekhlivanova K.I., Lebedeva M.N., 1985.
how to determine gender in Russian

Definition sort of in Russian language is one of the most common tasks for people learning this language. In Russian language there are three sort of– male, female and average. In addition, there is a general genus, the definition of which causes the greatest difficulty.

You will need

Ability to identify endings in different parts of speech

Instructions

Highlight the endings of adjectives and verbs that agree with the desired word. Most often, this is enough to determine. Put the verb in the past tense, and take the noun and adjective in the nominative case. The best friend has come, the best friend has come, a new one has risen. These are examples of adjective and verb endings in the masculine, feminine and neuter gender.

Determine whether the word you are looking for denotes a profession or type of activity. Most of these words are formally masculine. For example, the new doctor said (o), the new doctor said (o); He is an excellent specialist, she is an excellent specialist. Please note that some profession names do not have a masculine form sort of. For example, the word "ballerina" has only a feminine form sort of.

Remember that words like “klutz, fidget, bully, ignorant, greedy, smart” and the like refer to the general gender. These words give an emotional connotation to both masculine and feminine words. sort of, and name the occupation of these persons.

Sources:

Gramota.ru

Abbreviation(Italian abbreviatura from Latin brevis - short) is a word consisting of the names of the initial letters or sounds of the lexical elements of the original phrase. The name of the term determines the way abbreviations are formed by abbreviation (truncation of stems). When determining sort of such complex abbreviated words need to be “deciphered”, i.e. lead to the original combination.

You will need

- Dictionary.

Instructions

Determine what type the analyzed one belongs to. Traditionally, there are 3 types: - letter type, i.e. made up of the alphabetical names of the letters of the words that form the original phrase (RF, MHT, ORT); - sound type, i.e. formed from words included in the phrase (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN, Moscow Art Theater). Usually, sound abbreviations are formed when there are vowel sounds inside it; - mixed type, i.e. composed partly from the names of the initial letters, partly from sounds (Germany, CSKA).

Determine the original phrase from which the abbreviation is derived. If you have difficulty deciphering, refer to dictionaries or other sources of information.

Determine the gender of the leading word. This grammatical category is assigned to the abbreviation. For example, hard currency is a freely convertible currency. Defined word "currency" of the feminine sort of. This means that SLE is the same sort of.

Remember that the gender of some initial abbreviations has changed over time and the peculiarities of their use in speech. If a compound word has acquired the ability to decline according to the declension of names, then it has acquired the form of a masculine sort of. For example, university - study at a university. Initially, the word belonged to the neuter gender, because university – educational institution. Such abbreviations usually end in a consonant, so they are similar to masculine nouns sort of.

Many abbreviations are used in everyday conversation in different forms. At the same time, native speakers, by analogy with the external appearance of ordinary (non-abbreviated) nouns, determine their gender. For example, the word “RONO” began to be classified as neuter at the end of nouns like “window”.

In the Russian language, gender is a morphological indicator of variable parts of speech. It can be difficult to determine this grammatical category for nouns if the word is of foreign origin and is not declined. Dictionaries help to cope with difficulties. Adjectives, numerals, pronouns, participles, verbs in the singular change according to gender.

Instructions

The word must necessarily belong to an independent part of speech and change. The morphological indicator of the gender of nouns is constant, determined in the singular and plural. More often we have to consider changing independent words by gender (names must be supplemented with verbs).

Nouns have three genders: feminine, masculine and neuter (apple tree, silver). The ending of the nominative singular helps to determine the relationship to a particular gender. In the language there are words that name the qualities of people (bully, slob,). Whether a quality belongs to a female or male person helps to establish a specific characteristic. Borrowed indeclinable names, as a rule, are classified as neuter (, scoreboard, interview), sometimes masculine (penalty, coffee) and feminine (salami, avenue). The correlative concept serves as the basis for determining the gender of a foreign geographical name (Tokyo is a city, Congo is a state or river, Capri is an island). The reference word is usually the basis for establishing the generic attribute of abbreviations (MSU - university, UN - organization, NPP - station).

For adjectives and participles in the singular, gender is a grammatical indicator that directly depends on the word being defined (funny joke, smiling girl, flying cloud).

Ordinal numbers in structure and properties resemble adjectives (twentieth kilometer, seventeenth minute, century). Two collective cardinal numbers have an inflectional gender category (neuter and masculine - both windows; feminine - both friends).

The grammatical properties of pronouns are correlated with nominal parts of speech. The third person (he, she, it) has a permanent gender characteristic. The school curriculum avoids the issue of having a similar category for the personal pronouns I, you. Linguistic science classifies them as a common gender. Interrogative pronouns are masculine (who) and neuter (what). Other categories formed from them will have the same generic correspondence (Nobody came. Something happened). The variable indicator is inherent in demonstrative, possessive and other adjective pronouns.

Only the past tense singular form indicates the presence of masculine, feminine or neuter gender. The word-object and ending associated with the completed action help to correctly determine the required property (lightning flashed, thunder, sky).

note

Sources:

Grammar. How to determine the gender of nouns?
Numeral
Pronoun as part of speech

Non-declining words ending in -a, -e, -i, -o, -u, meaning singular inanimate objects, are usually used in the neuter gender.” The problem with the foreign origin of the word “coffee” is that, coming from Arabic, it overcame several language barriers before reaching the Russian language.

Understanding the black drink deserves special philological attention. So, if we are talking about the drink coffee - “a drink like coffee...” - then, definitely, it is it. The plant to which we owe the origin of this fragrant miracle is already neuter. The coffee plant is it. Those who like to tell fortunes on coffee grounds would do well to know that coffee grounds are the grounds.

As for the admissibility of using the noun “coffee” in the neuter gender, it is quite conditional. In average colloquial speech, the use of the neuter gender is acceptable. But those who strive for pure Russian literary speech must forget about this relaxation. In written speech, the use of the neuter gender is a sign of illiteracy.

In general, we can say the following:
male “coffee” has historical roots, a kind of linguistic memorial;
the foreign origin of this noun led to its various transformations in other languages and, in particular, from French it came to Russia in a masculine guise;
The noun "coffee" is masculine, but its consumption on average "is not punishable by law."

Disputes continue as to what genus the word “coffee” actually belongs to. Using “coffee” in the neuter gender has long been considered a mistake, although in colloquial speech it has always been quite common. On the other hand, in 2002 it was officially allowed to say “one coffee”. How is that right? Is there a literary norm?

In those ancient times, the word “coffee” in Russia was definitely masculine. This was partly facilitated by the fact that people often said “coffee” or “coffee” rather than “coffee.” These two forms belong to the masculine gender, which no one doubts.

At the beginning of the 20th century V.I. Chernyshev, a famous Russian linguist and philologist, compiled the first manual on the stylistic grammar of the Russian language. He also described the word “coffee” in his essay, pointing out the obvious contradiction associated with its use. On the one hand, it ends in -e and is not declined, that is, apparently, the word should have a neuter gender. On the other hand, since ancient times it has been used in the masculine gender.

To understand which norm is considered literary, it is useful to turn to the classics. F. M. Dostoevsky wrote: “...sipped his coffee,” Pushkin has a line: “...drank his coffee.” They preferred to pronounce coffee according to the rules of the French language, in which the word is used in the masculine gender.

So, despite the fact that the word looks like a representative of the neuter gender, Chernyshevsky was inclined to believe that it should be used in the masculine gender, according to the literary norms and traditions of Russian classics.

Ushakov and Ozhegov wrote the same thing when describing the word “coffee” in their dictionaries. They believed that it was correct to use it in the masculine gender, but noted that the neuter gender is often found in colloquial speech.

Modern standards

Despite the fact that for a long time the only acceptable form of using the word “coffee” was in the masculine gender, there were still many people who used it in the middle gender. This is probably what caused the colloquial form to become the norm. In 2002, a reform of the Russian language was carried out, according to which the phrase “hot coffee” became the norm.

The Russian Language Help Desk recommends the following. When it comes to a drink, the literary norm is still to use the word “coffee” in the masculine gender. But in colloquial speech it has become acceptable to use it in the middle. At the same time, when you talk about coffee, it would be correct to use the neuter gender.

In this lesson, you will learn what types of nouns are, practice determining the gender of nouns in the singular and plural, and observe the gender endings of nouns. Why is gender a constant feature of nouns? Which nouns cannot be gendered? Are there common nouns? You can get answers to these questions in class.

Introduction

Our ancestors, the ancient Slavs, once divided all things and beings into three classes - masculine, feminine, and "material" (or "material"). They deified many objects, giving them a feminine or masculine gender.

For example, the word child - material kind among the ancient Slavs. Children at all times did not have the right to own personal property. (V. Volina)

Do you know that there are languages in whichNouns have no gender. These are English, Finnish, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese and others.

There are languages in which nouns only havetwo kinds. These are French, Spanish, Italian.

There are languages in whichthere are many more genders than in our language.

For example, in many languages of the peoples of the Caucasus and Africa there can be up to 40 genders. They are called “classes” there. (N. Betenkova)

Lesson topic: “Gender of nouns. Gender endings of nouns."

How to find out the gender of nouns

Read the nouns. Which ones are called men and which ones are women?

Grandfather, mother, sister, father, grandmother, son, brother, granddaughter, uncle, aunt, daughter, great-grandfather, man, woman.

In Russian, nouns are masculine and feminine. What kind of words did we write in each column?

grandfather

dad

Brother

uncle

great grandfather

man

These are masculine words, since you can substitute the word He.

These are feminine words, since you can substitute the word she.

What word can be substituted for these words?

Wheel, hollow, insect, towel - IT. These are neuter words.

Nouns There are masculine, feminine and neuter genders. The gender of nouns is determined by substituting pronouns.

To nouns male you can substitute words he is mine.

To nouns female you can substitute words She is mine.

To nouns neuter you can substitute words it's mine.

Determining the gender of nouns in the plural

If it is necessary to determine the gender of a noun used in the plural, the word is first put in the singular, in the initial form. The initial form of a noun answers the questions who? What?

The cranes have flown away

And the rooks are already far away.

We didn’t have time to look back,

Blizzards stirred up the snow. (Vl. Prikhodko)

Cranes- plural, initial form - who? crane, he, m.r.

Rooks- plural, initial form - who? rook, he, m.r.

Blizzards- plural, beginning form - what? blizzard, she, f.r.

Snow- in units, beginning form - what? snow, he, m.r.

Why is gender a constant feature of nouns?

If a noun is, for example, feminine, can it be masculine or neuter?

Nouns are already born with masculine, feminine or neuter words. They do not change by birth. This is why gender is a constant feature of nouns.

March.

Sketched by the sky

White snowdrifts.

The sun burned them out

Doors and windows.(I. Zagraevskaya)

March- he, m.r.

Sky- it, s.r.

Snowdrifts- plural, beginning form - what? snowdrift, he, m.r.

Sun- it, s.r.

Doors- plural, beginning form - what? door, she, f.r.

Okonta- plural, beginning form - what? window, it, w.r.

Which nouns cannot be gendered?

Eyes, curlers, blinds, mustaches, sleds, skis, skates, vacations.

Eyes- What? eye, it, w.r.

Curlers, blinds

Mustache- What? mustache, he, m.r.

Sled- cannot be used in the singular.

Skis- What? ski, she, f.r.

Skates- What? horse, he, m.r.

Holidays- cannot be used in the singular.

For nouns that do not have a singular form, gender cannot be determined.

For example, trousers, tongs, scissors, day, cream, sawdust, ink, hide and seek, chess, yeast, pincers, twilight.

Common nouns

Interesting nouns: orphan, smart girl, crybaby.

Smart girl- who can be praised with this word, a boy or a girl?

Compare: He was an orphan. She was an orphan.

These nouns, depending on specific circumstances, can act as masculine nouns (He was so smart!), then as feminine nouns(She was so smart!)

These are nouns of a general kind.

Let's pick some more common nouns: ringleader, fidgety, quiet, why, arrogant, sweet tooth.

Gender endings of nouns

What endings can nouns have in the masculine, feminine and neuter gender?

dad A

Slav A

uncle I

You I

daughter A

natures A

Dash A

tet I

s.r.

movements e

fun e

belle e

Borodin O

lace O

canvas O

Complete the diagram: write the endings.

For nouns male more often endings -a, -i, and zero.

For nouns feminine endings -а, -я and zero.

For nouns Neuter endings -о, -е, -е.

(Some nouns ending -i, For example, dit I, flame I, time I ).

What do words have in common - masculine, feminine and neuter nouns?

In nouns masculine and feminine may have the same endings -a, -i, zero.

Is it possible to determine the gender of nouns only by the ending?

Solving a spelling problem at the end of nouns

Jam_, rainbow_, cave_, swamp_, clearing_, knee_, wheel_, patronymic_, lake_.

Knowing the gender of the noun, substituting words it, she, you can solve a spelling problem at the end, write the letter of an unstressed vowel correctly.

Jam_ ono, ending -o,

rainbow_ ona, ending -a,

caves_ ona, ending -a,

swamps_ ono, ending -o,

glade_ ona, ending -a,

knee_, wheel_, patronymic_, lake_ onό, ending -o.

Jam O, rainbow A, caves A, swamps O, glade A, knees O, wheel O, middle names O, lakes O.

How are borrowed words distributed by gender?

In Russian the word Sun- neuter.

In German the word Sun- feminine (“di zonne”).

The English just say "san" ( Sun), without attributing this noun to any of the existing genders.

The French Sun- masculine (“le soleil”).

In Spanish "el sol" Sun- male.

How are words distributed by gender that came from other languages, that is borrowed words?

In russian language Borrowed words retain the gender they had in the foreign language.

This explains the fact that in modern Russian the words piano, coffee, kangaroo belong to the masculine gender;

somersault, chassis, domino- to the neuter gender, and the word shawl- to the feminine gender.

Nouns borrowed from languages that have no gender receive it in Russian: basketball, football(from English) - masculine.

We look for nouns, determine their gender

Check yourself. Find nouns and determine their gender.

Who wrote what?

Once upon a time there was no paper. The first manuscripts appeared on clay tablets. In the east, paper was replaced by ivory. Animal skin - parchment - was often used for writing. In Ancient Rus' they wrote on birch bark and birch bark.

paper- paper, liquid,

manuscripts- manuscript, journal,

on signs- plate, w.r.,

in the east- east, m.r.,

paper- paper, liquid,

bone- f.r.,

for writing- letter, s.r.,

skin- leather, f.r.,

animals- animal, s.r.,

parchment- m.r.,

in Rus' - Rus, zh.r.,

on the bark- bark, f.r.,

birch bark- birch bark - f.r.

Conclusion

I will remember the feminine gender

And I will say: “She is mine.”

And I will remember the masculine gender

And again I will say: “He is mine.”

The neuter gender is mine!

This is your rule!(E. Semyonova)

In the lesson, you learned that if you need to determine the gender of a noun used in the plural, the word is first put in the singular, in the initial form.

Nouns do not change by gender.

For nouns that do not have a singular form, gender cannot be determined.

Bibliography

M.S. Soloveychik, N. S. Kuzmenko “To the secrets of our language” Russian language: Textbook. 3rd grade: in 2 parts. - Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2010.
M.S. Soloveychik, N. S. Kuzmenko “To the secrets of our language” Russian language: Workbook. 3rd grade: in 3 parts. - Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2010.
T. V. Koreshkova Test tasks in the Russian language. 3rd grade: in 2 parts. - Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2011.
T.V. Koreshkova Practice! Notebook for independent work in the Russian language for 3rd grade: in 2 parts. - Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2011.
L.V. Mashevskaya, L.V. Danbitskaya Creative tasks in the Russian language. - St. Petersburg: KARO, 2003.
G.T. Dyachkova Olympiad tasks in Russian. 3-4 grades. - Volgograd: Teacher, 2008.

Homework

For these nouns, select nouns that are close in meaning. Please indicate gender.
Ring - ...

Strengthening -…

Border - …

Bay - …

Luck - …

A curtain - …

Duty - …

Silence -…
Words for reference: heat, fortress, bay, success, silence, duty, ring, darkness, curtain, boundary.
Read the text. Determine the gender of nouns.
Pretender.

A large gorilla lives in the Prague Zoo. One morning the monkey suddenly fell ill. She refused to eat and moaned. The doctor decided that the animal had eaten too much. The gorilla was given medicine and left. The monkey recovered instantly. During the inspection, she pulled out a key from the caretaker's pocket. She opened the cage for them and began to walk around the zoo.
Read the text. Find the nouns and write them in 3 columns:
m.r., f. R. , Wed R.

Petya is dreaming.

If only there was soap

It came

In the mornings to my bed

And it would wash me itself -

That would be nice!

If, let's say,

Wizard

Gave me such a textbook

So that he would

I could do it myself

Answer any lesson...

If only I had a pen,

So that I can solve the problem,

Write any dictation... (B. Zakhoder)

Internet portal Oldskola1.narod.ru ().
Internet portal School-collection.edu.ru ().
Internet portal Gramota.ru ().
Internet portal Russisch-fuer-kinder.de ().

Genus. There are three genders in the Russian language: masculine, feminine and neuter. Each noun belongs to one of these genders: father, boy, pee A body, wolf, oak, house- masculine nouns; mother, girl, pee A calf, fox, pine, school O la- feminine nouns; animal, tree, wing, field, building, feeling- neuter nouns.

morphological analysis of the word answers

For animate nouns, gender has a real meaning, indicating that they belong to the male or female gender. For inanimate nouns, there is no connection between the meaning of the noun and its gender (even nouns belonging to the same thematic group can have different genders: for example, in the names of the days of the week, the nouns Monday, Tuesday, Thursday- male, Wednesday A. Friday, Saturday O that- female, Sunday- neuter). Thus, for most nouns, gender is grammatical in nature and is determined by a formal feature - by endings in the nominative singular. Nouns used only in the plural have no gender (for example: spirit And. vacation, day).

hot analysis of words by composition

Masculine gender includes nouns ending :
chicken word analysis a) to a hard consonant - house, table, world, city, view;

what is frost adjectives

b) to a soft consonant (including And) - nail, fire, January, stream, hero;
composition of the word seaside c) on w, w, h, sch(without a soft sign) - knife, pencil, key, cloak .

table noun 5th grade

Some masculine nouns, denoting male persons, as well as proper names for men (usually diminutives), have the ending - and I(man, young man, uncle, Borya, Vanya, Sasha, Nikita) .
determine noun case

killed morphological analysis

a) on -a, -i, -iya - country, land, party ;
has long been disassembled by composition b) for a soft consonant - spruce, bed, area ;
union example c) on w, w, h, sch(with a soft sign) - rye, mouse, night, speech, help .
parse the big word as part of speech

a) on -o, -e, -e, -ie- window, sea, towel, gun, skill ;
b) on -me - vr e me,And me, banner, flame .

In this way, neuter nouns are most easily distinguished. Masculine and feminine nouns have partially overlapping forms of the nominative case (for a soft consonant, for w, w, h, sch); It is best to memorize their gender in accordance with the instructions in the dictionary.

masculine and feminine nouns w, w, h, sch. identical in pronunciation, in writing they differ in the presence of a soft sign after the final consonant in feminine nouns and in its absence in masculine nouns ( rye - knife, night - ball);

all animate nouns with a suffix -tel- male ( writer, reader);

all inanimate nouns with a suffix -ness- female ( youth,
nationality, independence).

Morphologically, the gender of nouns is manifested in case endings, syntactically - in the form of agreement with adjectives, pronouns, participles, as well as verbs in the past tense, cf. after e daysday, day ' ;passed(m.), last autumn, autumn has passed(and.), after e It's summer, summer has passed(cf.).

Number. Nouns have two numbers: singular and plural ( book - books, table - tables, teacher - teachers).

Only in the singular some nouns are used to denote substances, materials ( milk, salt, gold), abstract concepts (studying, walking,presence, courage), names of some plants ( potatoes, carrots, onions, strawberries), names of countries of the world, as well as proper names (south, from e ver, Moscow, Volga, Caucasus, France,Warsaw).

Only inplural nouns are used that denote so-called paired or composite objects (trousers. gate, scissors, glasses), names of some substances ( perfume, cream, ink).

morphological analysis of the word we will leave

The gender of a noun refers to its lexico-grammatical categories. The morphological feature of gender is manifested in the ability of this part of speech to be combined with dependent words. Nouns belonging to different genders differ from each other in case endings during declension, word structure and some lexical features. There are three forms of gender in the Russian language - masculine, feminine and neuter.

You will need

- analyzed word;
- linguistic dictionary or textbook.

Instructions

When determining the feminine gender of inanimate nouns, keep in mind that they have endings in the nominative singular form -a, -я (wall, will) and zero if the noun ends in a soft sign (rye). For animate nouns, the defining feature is that they belong to female creatures (girl, cat). To avoid confusing the endings of feminine and masculine nouns, substitute the pronouns “she, mine” to check. For example, a song (she, mine).

Determine the masculine gender of nouns based on the ending of the initial form: zero for words ending with a consonant (house, table), -a, -ya for animate nouns naming male creatures (uncle, Seryozha). In order not to confuse the gender of nouns ending in a soft sign, also substitute the pronoun “he, my” (stump, day) to check.

Determine neuter nouns by the endings of the initial form -о, -е and by substituting the pronouns “it, mine” (field, window). Please note that the group of indeclinable nouns ending in the combination -mya also belongs to the neuter gender (tribe, seed, etc.). Among neuter nouns there are almost no animate ones, their number is very small (child, creature, animal).

Among nouns, there are several special groups, the determination of gender in which is difficult. These include common nouns, indeclinables and compound words.
Correlate the meanings of common nouns with their belonging to animate objects of the female or male gender. For example, a slob girl (feminine), an arrogant boy (masculine). General nouns include those that denote the qualities of people (glutton, ignorant, crybaby) or the names of persons by profession, position, occupation (architect Ivanov - architect Ivanova).

Keep in mind that the gender of indeclinable nouns is related to their animate/inanimate nature, specific/generic concept. For animate indeclinable nouns, determine gender by gender (Monsieur, Miss). Nouns that give names to animals and birds are masculine (pony, kangaroo, cockatoo). Inanimate ones usually belong to the neuter gender (coat, muffler). Exceptions are words whose gender is determined by association with generic names: kohlrabi - cabbage (feminine), Hindi - language (masculine), etc.

The main grammatical feature that is inherent in almost every part of speech is the category of gender. How many genders do nouns have and how to correctly determine this category for this part of speech? You will find answers to these and other questions in the article.

What is the gender of nouns?

Category of gender of nouns in Russian– a grammatical sign indicating the gender (gender) of the object (living creature, phenomenon) called by the noun or its absence. Gender is a permanent grammatical feature of nouns and is studied in the 6th grade.

Features of the category of gender of nouns

There are three types of nouns in the Russian language:

Male (he). Masculine nouns in the singular I. p. have the endings -a, -я, and zero.
Examples of masculine nouns: dad, uncle, knife, table, hawk.
Female (she). Feminine nouns in the singular I. p. have the endings -a, -я, and zero.
Examples of feminine nouns: wife, nanny, night, glory, desert.
Average (it). Neuter nouns in the singular I. p. have endings -о, -е.
Examples of neuter nouns: swamp, gold, sun, lake, jam.

There is also a class of words, the so-called general gender, which, depending on the context, can be used in both masculine and feminine genders

(boring, sissy, crybaby, smart, greedy).

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How to determine the gender of a noun?

For animate nouns, the gender coincides with the gender of a living creature, a person (father, interlocutor - m.r., girlfriend, gossip - f.r.).

For all nouns, gender can be determined by the grammatical form of the adjective, which agrees with the noun:

Masculine whose? Which? (white snow, good advice);
Feminine. Nouns agree with adjectives that answer questions - whose? which? (fresh newspaper, cheerful friend);
Neuter gender. Nouns agree with adjectives that answer questions - whose? which? (green field, tall building).