Every Russian noun has a gender — there is no neutral "it". Gender affects adjective endings, pronoun agreement, and past tense verbs.
How to tell the gender
- Masculine: ends in a hard consonant or -й. E.g., дом (house), музей (museum).
- Feminine: ends in -а or -я. E.g., мама (mom), песня (song).
- Neuter: ends in -о or -е. E.g., молоко (milk), здание (building).
Exception
Nouns ending in -ь (soft sign) can be masculine (день — day) or feminine (ночь — night). You must learn these by heart.
Quick reference
| Ending | Gender | Example |
|---|---|---|
| consonant | M | дом (house) |
| -й | M | музей (museum) |
| -а | F | мама (mom) |
| -я | F | песня (song) |
| -о | N | окно (window) |
| -е | N | море (sea) |
Related Topics
Alphabet and Pronunciation
Stress
Nouns: Singular and Plural
Personal Pronouns
Possessive Pronouns: мой, твой, наш, ваш
Demonstratives: этот, эта, это, эти
Basic Sentence Structure
Present Tense Verbs
Past Tense Verbs
Basic Future: я буду читать
Adjectives: Gender and Plural Agreement
Basic Adverbs
Question Words
Numbers, Days, Months
Basic Prepositions: в, на, у, с, из, к
Fixed Case Patterns: у меня есть, у меня нет and more