Masculine Russian language. General gender of nouns in Russian: definition, examples

In Russian, one of the main characteristics of nouns is their gender. Let's try to figure it out, as well as find out the essence of this term, learn to define, find this category in various texts, and also consider possible exceptions to the rules. We fix the material with tables.

Of course, many will object: why is this necessary? Now, in the century information technologies, absolutely everything can be found online on the Internet - it is enough, just to score what you are looking for in the search box.

And the answer is simple - knowledge of the grammar of the Russian language makes a person more educated: after all, everything that a person says, writes, shows his culture.

What is the gender of nouns

What does a person need to know about such an element of this part of speech? In general, this category is common in almost all languages ​​of the world (with the exception of Armenian, some languages ​​of the Caucasian countries).

This term is understood as the possibility of a noun to be combined with different forms agreed words depending on their generic affiliation.

There are 3 genera:

• male;
• female;
• average.

It is worth noting: at different languages the same word can belong to a completely different gender.

In addition, the Russian language has a separate variety of this part of speech - the common gender, which will be discussed below.

Formally, this characteristic of a part of speech can be defined as follows:

Masculine nouns have the following characteristics:

signs female nouns:

The neuter gender of nouns is characterized by the following features:

How to determine the gender of a noun

The easiest thing to do is ask a question. Then look at the case, compare with the signs presented above. If this does not help, then you need to remember a few rules.

Key Features

Firstly, professions are distributed according to this criterion depending on the ending - it does not matter what gender the person belonging to it is ( surgeon- husband. R., babysitter- wives. R.).

Secondly, the previous rule is also characteristic of animals (a cat is a female, a woodpecker is a male). At the same time, if at the end it is impossible to determine the gender, then grammatically it will correspond to the sign of the concept that defines it: wildebeest- difficult to define, but antelope(denotes the type of ungulate) - female r., then, accordingly, the desired word will be of the same gender.

Thirdly, for words separated by a hyphen, the defining part is the main part (according to lexical meaning or change). For example: museum apartment- female r.

Fourthly, for some words it is now difficult to find an explanation of this concept, so it is easier to remember them:

1. rail, shampoo- m.r.;
2. vanilla, corn- f.r.

Fifth, abbreviations are determined by gender depending on the keyword of their full transcript ( UN - organization- female p.).

More difficult cases

The first thing you should pay attention to, generalizing signs:

• for male:

• for female:

• for average:

Genus definition geographical names:

• the genus is determined by its concept: the Mississippi River (female), the city of Delhi (male), Lake Baikal (middle);
• depends on vocabulary

1. Chile - meaning "country" - female r.;
2. Chile - meaning "state" - middle r.

Take into account: it is impossible to determine the gender of plural words (for example: scissors, gates).

General gender of nouns

Table-reminder "Declination of nouns"

Below is a declension guide for each gender.

Let us turn to the category of gender of nouns. Do you remember that in Russian the gender of nouns is determined on two grounds: at the end nominative case singular and according to the meaning of the noun, namely, according to the relation of persons and animals called by this noun to the natural sex. It is necessary to know what gender a particular noun belongs to in order to correctly change it in cases, to correctly combine it with other words in a sentence. That is why in dictionaries indications of gender are a mandatory characteristic of nouns.

It is customary to distinguish five groups of nouns according to their gender:

Masculine nouns;

Feminine nouns;

Nouns of the middle gender;

Common nouns ( crybaby, smart girl, sneak);

Nouns whose gender cannot be determined trousers, railings, pliers, jungle, yeast, blush, debate, holidays, dusk, the Alps).

To masculine include nouns ending in a solid consonant stem or -i (house, father, balance, bank, barter, credit, tea, land), all nouns ending in -tel (teacher, writer, switch, indicator), month names (January, february, april, june, july, september, october, november, december), borrowed nouns with stems in -l, -n, -r (ensemble, shampoo, piano, vestibule, calendar).

To feminine include nouns ending in -а, -я (wife, earth, idea, game, computer science, migration, firm, function), nouns ending in a soft consonant stem (life, steel, night), as well as nouns ending in a hard hissing (youth, lies, rye, gouache, retouching, nonsense, falseness, wilderness).

To neuter include nouns ending in -o, -e (window, business, field, bankruptcy, godlessness, good, wealth, department, religion, application, lending, distribution), as well as all nouns ending in -mya (time, crown, burden, stirrup , udder, name, banner, flame, tribe, seed) and the noun child.

Exception make up nouns with the ending -a, -я and nouns with a zero ending in a soft consonant, which are masculine, as they denote males: uncle, young man, Muscovite, cabin boy, bear. The noun apprentice also belongs to the masculine gender.

So, in modern Russian, three kinds of nouns are traditionally distinguished: male (envelope, law), female (article, bench) and middle (punishment, crime). Usually, initial form The word already gives an idea of ​​its generic affiliation. However, in some cases, the definition of the gender of nouns is difficult.

1. Frequent errors in the use of indeclinable nouns (as a rule, borrowed from other languages), in combination with adjectives or verbs of the past tense, due to incorrect combination of word forms by gender. Attempts to change such words lead to blunders like: He came back for a coat. The gender of such words cannot be determined by the ending, it is determined by the meaning of the word, associated in most cases with the concept of animateness / inanimateness. Most inanimate indeclinable nouns are neuter (foyer, cinema, coat, highway, khaki, pince-nez, boucle). Neuter gender have inanimate nouns denoting objects (highway, cinema, coat). The exceptions are the words coffee (m.r.), Hindi, Swahili (names of languages ​​- m.r.), avenue (street - f.r.). To feminine include animate nouns denoting females (madame, miss, lady). To masculine relate:

Animated nouns denoting males (dandy);

Animated nouns with the meaning of a position, rank or profession traditionally associated with male labor (entertainer, attache, referee);

Nouns that are the names of animals and are used without indicating their gender (kangaroo, chow-chow).

animated indeclinable nouns can be used both as masculine words and as feminine words, depending on what gender they denote, i.e. they correspond to the sex of a real person or animal. Wed: magnificent maestro; my counterpart is my counterpart; your protégé is your protégé; bright cockatoo - bright cockatoo.

From this general rule there are exceptions:

a) indeclinable nouns that have a generic name in Russian correspond to the gender of the latter: salami - well. R. (sausage), kohlrabi - w. R. (cabbage);

b) sometimes the gender of an indeclinable noun is determined by the gender of the word, which is common and declinable for such nouns: avenue is defined as a feminine noun because it corresponds to the inflected feminine noun street, slang- with a synonymous masculine noun jargon, suluguni- with a masculine noun (cheese), aloe- m.r. (flower), Hindi- m.r. (language), Capri- m.r. (island), Mississippi- and. R. (river), Tbilisi- m.r. (city);

c) the noun coffee is masculine, although in recent times in colloquial speech its use as a neuter noun is permissible: delicious coffee and delicious coffee, one coffee and one coffee;

d) the names of the letters refer to words of the middle gender: Russian A, capital B; names of sounds - neuter or masculine: unstressed A - unstressed A; Note names are neuter: long mi;

2. If indeclinable nouns call living beings, their gender depends on the gender of the latter ( young - young kangaroo, Durnovo reported - reported, beautiful - beautiful counterpart).

3. Some nouns ending in -а/-я are used in relation to both male and female persons and, as a rule, have an evaluative character. Such nouns are words generic

(slob, clever, crybaby, bully, clever, good fellow, greedy, glutton, dormouse, sneak).

General nouns denoting males agree with the masculine forms of adjectives, pronouns, and past tense or subjunctive verbs, and nouns denoting females agree with the corresponding feminine forms. Wed: He is so smart! She is so smart! My colleague carefully read the documents. My colleague carefully read the documents.

4. Considerable difficulties arise in the use of nouns denoting persons by occupation or profession. Nouns that call a person by profession or position are used in the masculine gender, regardless of the gender of the person in question ( Vasilyeva is a very young professor). Masculine nouns denoting male and female persons of the type doctor, engineer, technologist, banker, assistant, manager, businessman, as a rule, agree with adjectives in the masculine form (i.e. at the end), and with verbs - in the masculine or feminine form, depending on whether the person belongs to the masculine or female gender(i.e. by value). For example: Experienced lawyer Ivanova won the process. - Experienced lawyer Ivanov won the process; The local doctor Smirnova visited the patient. - The local doctor Smirnov visited the patient. In some cases, the language has parallel forms ( orderly - nurse, weaver - weaver). Nouns do not have gender oppositions seamstress, laundress, manicurist, machinist, typist. Type forms conductor, cashier, director, cook have a colloquial-spatial coloring.

5. Some nouns are characterized by generic variants. For example, giraffe and giraffe, jackboot and jackboot. Often only one option is recommended as stylistically neutral ( hall - hall (obsolete), hall (simple), gelatin - gelatin (prof.).

6. Nouns that are used only in the plural form have no gender ( sleigh, scissors, gates, pants, glasses).

7. Rod compound nouns type theatre-studio, novel-newspaper is determined by the generic feature of that component, which has a great informative value.

8. The gender of indeclinable geographical names correlates with the gender of the corresponding common noun: Sochi, Tbilisi(city

- m.r.), Ontario(lake - cf.), Mississippi(river - f.r.).

9. The gender of indeclinable abbreviations is determined by the gender of the main word of the phrase ( SGLA - academy - female, NCFU - university - m.d.). However, if in the minds of people there are no associations of abbreviations with generating words, it receives a gender, like an ordinary word, according to a formal indicator and belongs to the masculine gender in the case zero ending (ZhEK, university, although “office”, “institution”), to the middle gender, if the ending is -o ( RONO, although "department").

10. In Russian, nouns are actively used, which are formed as a result of the addition of two words. Such compound nouns can be animate or inanimate ( governor general, woman astronaut, conference room). In animate nouns, the gender is determined by the word indicating the gender of the person ( female astronaut- and. R.; miracle hero- m. R.). For inanimate nouns, the gender is determined by the gender of the first word ( museum-apartment- m.r.; dressing gown- cf. R.; amphibious aircraft- m.r.; boarding school- and. R.). If a compound noun has an indeclinable noun in its composition, then the gender is determined by the gender of the inflected word ( cafe-dining room- and. R.; comedy buff- and. R.; taxi car- m. R.).

11. Gender of nouns formed with suffixes -seek-, -chic-, is determined by the gender of the noun from which these nouns are derived ( voice - voice: m.r.; oar - oar: cf. R.; snake - snakes: female; brother - brother: m.r.; letter - letter: cf. R; newspaper - newspaper: f.r.).

What is a gender in relation to the Russian language, how many genders are in the Russian language and which are distinguished?

Students begin to get acquainted with this category in primary school gradually deepening and consolidating their knowledge. In the fifth grade, information about the genus is replenished and fixed on more complex material.

How many genders are in Russian?

The following system is presented in Russian:

• Feminine.
• Male gender.
• Neuter gender.
• Common gender.

The gender of words used only in plural.

How many genders does a noun have in Russian?

To determine the gender of a noun, set to given word semantic question: is it mine? She is mine? is it mine?

As can be seen from the table, gender is determined only for nouns in singular. Nouns used only in the plural (trousers, glasses, sleigh) are outside the category of gender.

When determining the gender of nouns, schoolchildren often find it difficult to use words like "knowledgeable", "clever", "fidget" and the like. For example: he was a big fidget and she was a big fidget. Are these words feminine or masculine? This is where the question posed in the title arises: how many genders are there in the Russian language? Scientists have two points of view on this matter: some attribute them to male or female, depending on the context, others single out such words in a special gender - general.

Indeclinable foreign nouns also cause difficulties. In spelling, they resemble words belonging to the middle gender. Indeed, most of them belong to this genus, but there are (let's say so) exceptions to the rule.

So, according to the literary norm, the noun "coffee" refers to the masculine gender. It would be wrong to say "my coffee". This is a mistake, the correct option is "my coffee".

Noun "euro", by analogy with other names monetary units, refers to the masculine gender. By the same principle, the nouns "suluguni", "sirocco", "penalty" are masculine. Based on the same analogy, the nouns "avenue", "salami", "kohlrabi" are feminine.

If you have any doubts about the gender of a noun, then you should refer to the dictionaries of the Russian language.

How to determine the gender of an adjective?

Unlike a noun, for which the category of gender is invariable, for an adjective it is an inflected category and is determined depending on the context. The rule by which the gender of this part of speech is determined is as follows: the gender of the adjective is determined by the word being defined, that is, by the noun.

For example:

• The girl was wearing a beautiful (cf. R.) dress. ("Dress" - it is mine, therefore - it is neuter gender, which means that the adjective "beautiful" refers to the middle gender).
• He was a handsome (m.r.) man. The street is beautiful (female).

There are also indeclinable adjectives. For example: khaki pants.

Now you know the answer to the question of how many genders there are in Russian. We also analyzed their definition with examples. It is very important to be able to determine the gender of a noun or adjective - this will help to avoid grammatical errors.

For the correct use of words, it is necessary to understand what kind they are. Here is coffee, for example, the middle masculine gender? If the average, then you need to say: "My coffee is cold." And if male - "My coffee is cold." How not to pass for an illiterate person, defining the middle gender?

What are neuter words? Examples

The division of parts of speech by gender (feminine, neuter and masculine) is inherent not only in the Russian language. Determines whether the ending of a word belongs to the neuter gender. Neutral nouns are usually inanimate, although there are exceptions:

• creature,
• animal,
• monster,
• deity,
• child,
• monster,
• person (official).

If a word comes from another language, has an ending in a vowel, is inanimate and, according to established tradition, does not decline, it is considered neuter.

Neutral nouns answer the question: whose is it? If you can say about a word: “It is mine,” then this is a neuter noun. There are two types of endings for such words:

1. -o, -e, -e, -e. These are, for example, such words: pots, lake, muffler, gun, understanding.
2. -me. For example, stirrup, crown, name.

Words of the middle gender can be not only nouns, but also adjectives, numerals and pronouns.

Coffee - it or he?

It seems that the word "coffee" does not obey the rule: it ends in "e", but it is not neuter, but masculine. exception? Not really. The fact is that the word, along with the drink, came to Russia with Peter the Great. Tea has long been known, and by analogy with this drink, the novelty was called "coffee". Then no one doubted that the word is masculine. His diminutive version of "coffee" is now beyond doubt.

Over time, the word "coffee" became obsolete, replaced by "coffee". The word became indeclinable. And here a paradox arose. According to the rules, this word should have a neuter gender. This is why, intuitively, people began to use "coffee" as a neuter word. There was a process that translated the word "metro" from the masculine to the middle. You probably remember Utyosov's song: "But the subway flashed with oak railings..."

Why don't linguists recognize coffee as neuter? Because this word has a special meaning. Its use in the middle gender contradicts the literary tradition, therefore it is perceived as illiterate. Coffee got into which carriers of literate Russian speech are fighting. These are the words contract, calls, blinds, cottage cheese, provision and several others.

And although since 2002 you can say “my coffee” in colloquial speech, only the masculine gender is recognized in writing.

declination

Changing words by case is called declension. Words of the middle gender with an ending can be declined. For neuter nouns, the following rules exist (see table).

Common Mistakes

A typical mistake was the incorrect definition of the gender of some words. Due to the ending "o", which is pronounced as "a" in the unstressed version, some inflect such words in the feminine form. Example:

• The buffet sells pies with jammy, manga and dried apricots.
• We saw the natives living in bungalow.
• neighbors bought piano.

The correct options would be to use the highlighted words in the form of the middle gender. That is: with jam, with mango, in a bungalow, they bought a piano.

The second common mistake is trying to change indeclinable nouns in cases. Not only children are confused, but incredible words feminine, masculine, neuter.

Words that do not change by case. Examples

In addition to inflected, there are also neuter words that are invariable in cases:

• arpeggio,
• video,
• graffiti,
• dragee,
• neckline,
• coupe,
• Cafe,
• mango,
• mini,
• neutrino,
• penalty,
• piano,
• rendezvous,
• solo,
• trio,
• Taxi,
• fuete,
• facsimile.

This list is far from complete. Therefore, if you have any difficulties, it is better to refer to dictionaries.

How to remember words without endings: a game

In order not to make mistakes in declension, there is a simple and fun way to check. Try to put these words in several different cases. If it turns out funny and ridiculous, then this word does not decline in cases.

• Kangaroo put on pince-nez (wrong, there is no such word, you need to put “pince-nez”).
• To get to the cafe, I took a taxi (it would be correct: "taxi").
• We gorged ourselves on creme brulee, blancmange and jelly beans (that's right: "creme brulee, blancmange and jelly beans").
• Let's meet near the depot and go to watch the film "Dynama" (you need: "near the depot, the movie" Dynamo ").
• I am dissatisfied with a passe-partout with a photo and a panel (it would be competently like this: “passe-partout with a photo and a panel”).

Play this game with your kids. It is simple, the main thing is not to forget that these words do not decline in cases. Regular games with words develop intelligence and replenish vocabulary. Soon the child will feel how to build a phrase and use words, and will not make mistakes.

→Nouns: gender and number

Gender and number of nouns

Genus: There are three genders in Russian: masculine, feminine and neuter. Each noun belongs to one of these genders: father, boy a body, wolf, oak, house- masculine nouns; mother, girl, piss a vest, fox, pine, school about la- feminine nouns animal, tree, wing, field, building, feeling- nouns of the middle gender.

In animate nouns, the gender has a real meaning, indicating belonging to the male or female sex. Inanimate nouns have 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, nouns Monday, Tuesday, Thursday- male, Wednesdays a, Friday, Saturday about that- female, Sunday- neuter). Thus, for most nouns, the gender has a grammatical character and is determined by a formal feature - by the endings in the nominative case of the singular. Nouns that are used only in the plural have no gender (for example: spirit and, holidays, days).

Masculine nouns are nouns that end in:
a) into a hard consonant - house, table, world, city, view;

b) to a soft consonant (including and) - nail, fire, January, stream, hero;
c) on w, w, h, w(without soft sign) - knife, pencil, key, cape.

Some masculine nouns denoting males, as well as proper names of men (often diminutives), have the ending - and I (man, young man, uncle, Borya, Vanya, Sasha, Nikita).

Feminine nouns are nouns that end in:

a) on -a, -i, -ya — country, land, party;
b) into a soft consonant - spruce, bed, area;
c) on w, w, h, w(with soft sign) — rye, mouse, night, speech, help.

The neuter gender is nouns that end in:

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

Thus, nouns of the middle gender are most easily distinguished. Masculine and feminine nouns have overlapping forms of the nominative case (on a soft consonant, on w, w, h, w); their gender is best remembered in accordance with the instructions of the dictionary.

We can name only a few auxiliary ways to determine gender:

• masculine and feminine nouns in w, w, h, w, coinciding in pronunciation, in writing differ in the presence of a soft sign after the final consonant in feminine nouns and in the absence of it in masculine nouns ( rye is a knife, night is a ball);

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

• all inanimate nouns with a suffix -awn- 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 .: last e daysthe day, the day has passed(m.), last autumn, autumn has passed(and.), last e summer is gone, summer is gone(cf.).

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

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

Only in plural nouns are used denoting the so-called paired or compound objects (pants, gates, scissors, glasses), names of some substances ( perfume, cream, ink).

• ← Gender and number of nouns→