Gender is the very first thing to know about a Russian noun, because almost everything else agrees with it: adjectives, the past tense, and pronouns all change shape to match. The good news is that for most nouns the ending gives the gender away at a glance.
1. The three genders
Russian has three genders — masculine, feminine, and neuter. For the large majority of nouns you can read the gender straight off the last letter of the dictionary (nominative) form.
| Gender | Typical ending | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine | a consonant, or -й | стол (table), дом (house), музей (museum), чай (tea) |
| Feminine | -а / -я | книга (book), мама (mum), неделя (week), земля (earth) |
| Neuter | -о / -е | окно (window), море (sea), письмо (letter), здание (building) |
That single table covers thousands of words. The exceptions are few and worth learning on their own.
2. The soft-sign trap (-ь)
Nouns ending in a soft sign -ь can be either masculine or feminine, and the ending alone will not tell you which. You simply have to learn the gender with the word.
| Masculine -ь | Feminine -ь |
|---|---|
| день (day), словарь (dictionary), путь (way) | ночь (night), дверь (door), мать (mother), любовь (love) |
A useful tendency, not a rule
Most -ь nouns are feminine (roughly three in four), so feminine is the safer guess — but masculine -ь nouns are common everyday words, so treat the gender of every -ь noun as something to memorise, not predict.
3. People override the ending
When a word names a male person, it is masculine even if it ends in -а / -я. Natural gender wins over the ending.
- папа (dad), дядя (uncle), дедушка (grandpa), мужчина (man), юноша (young man) are all masculine.
So you say мой папа (my dad, masculine adjective), never моя папа. The reverse is rare; these "male -а" words are the set to remember.
4. Making plurals
The nominative plural is built straight off the gender you just learned, with one spelling rule that overrides part of the pattern.
4.1 Swap the ending
To make a regular nominative plural, swap the ending:
| Singular | Plural ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine consonant | -ы | стол → столы |
| masculine -й / -ь | -и | музей → музеи, словарь → словари |
| feminine -а | -ы | карта → карты |
| feminine -я / -ь | -и | неделя → недели, дверь → двери |
| neuter -о | -а | окно → окна |
| neuter -е | -я | море → моря |
4.2 The spelling rule that beats -ы
The spelling rule that beats -ы
After the seven letters г, к, х, ж, ш, ч, щ you must write -и, never -ы. That is why it is книги (not книгы) and де́вушки (not девушкы), even though they are feminine -а nouns.
5. Irregular plurals worth knowing
A handful of very common nouns build their plural in their own way. Learn these early — you will use them constantly.
| Singular | Plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| друг | друзья | friend(s) |
| брат | братья | brother(s) |
| сын | сыновья | son(s) |
| стул | стулья | chair(s) |
| город | города | city / cities |
| дом | дома | house(s) |
| мать | матери | mother(s) |
| дочь | дочери | daughter(s) |
| человек | люди | person / people |
| ребёнок | дети | child / children |
6. Why gender matters
Gender is not decoration — it controls agreement everywhere. Three pieces of the sentence reach back to the noun's gender for their shape.
6.1 Adjectives match it
Adjectives copy the gender of the noun they describe: новый дом, новая книга, новое окно. The full set of endings lives in the adjective agreement guidesoon.
6.2 The past tense matches it
The past tense agrees with the subject's gender, not its person: он читал, она читала, оно читало. That gendered ending is one of the first things to watch for in the past tensesoon.
6.3 Pronouns and case endings match it
Pronouns match it too: дом → он, книга → она, окно → оно — the same он / она / оно you meet in the personal pronouns guide. Gender also decides how a noun behaves once it changes shape for a case: the accusative endings split by gender (and animacy), and the genitive and prepositional endings depend on it as well.
Get the gender right once, and the rest of the sentence falls into place.
Common mistakes
- Treating папа / дядя as feminine because they end in -а. They are masculine: мой папа.
- Writing -ы after г, к, х, ж, ш, ч, щ. It is книги, not книгы.
- Guessing that every -ь noun is feminine — день, словарь, путь are masculine.
- Over-regularising plurals: it is друзья and дети, not другы or ребёнки.
7. Test yourself
Test yourself
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Connected grammar
Once gender is automatic, every adjective, verb, and pronoun around the noun gets easier. Drill it with full noun packs in the Uchim app.