Russian Nouns & Gender — Masculine, Feminine, Neuter

Every Russian noun has one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. For most nouns the gender is predictable from the ending of the dictionary (nominative singular) form: nouns ending in a consonant or -й are masculine (стол, музе́й); nouns ending in -а or -я are feminine (кни́га, неде́ля); nouns ending in -о or -е are neuter (окно́, мо́ре).

The main complications: nouns ending in -ь (the soft sign) can be either masculine (день, слова́рь) or feminine (ночь, дверь), and you have to memorise which is which. A handful of nouns referring to people end in -а / -я but are masculine because of meaning (па́па, дя́дя). Gender determines the form of adjectives, pronouns, past-tense verbs, and many case endings.

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