Russian Noun Gender
Masculine, feminine, neuter: recognizing gender from the ending
⚡Key points
Recognizing gender from the ending
Unlike English, which has no grammatical gender, Russian has three genders. The nominative ending tells you the gender in the vast majority of cases — no need to memorize gender word by word.
Endings by gender
| Masculine | consonant | стол (table), дом (house), студе́нт |
| Masculine | -й | музе́й (museum), чай (tea), геро́й (hero) |
| Feminine | -а | кни́га (book), ма́ма (mom), маши́на (car) |
| Feminine | -я | неде́ля (week), Росси́я (Russia) |
| Feminine (often) | -ь | тетра́дь (notebook), мать (mother), ночь (night) |
| Neuter | -о | окно́ (window), письмо́ (letter), я́блоко (apple) |
| Neuter | -е | мо́ре (sea), зда́ние (building), со́лнце (sun) |
Special cases to know
Nouns ending in -ь: mostly feminine, but with masculine exceptions
Feminine: ночь (night), дочь (daughter), любо́вь (love), жизнь (life).
Masculine (to memorize): день (day), слова́рь (dictionary), путь (path), царь (tsar).
Tip: abstract nouns ending in -ость are always feminine (молодость "youth", ра́дость "joy").
People: gender follows biological sex
па́па (dad) → masculine despite the -а ending.
дя́дя (uncle), де́душка (grandpa) → masculine.
мужчи́на (man) → masculine.
Borrowed words: often neuter and indeclinable
кафе́ (café — the place) → neuter, never declined.
метро́ (metro) → neuter, invariable.
такси́ (taxi) → neuter, invariable.
Dialogue: identifying gender in a sentence
Teacher: What gender is "кни́га"? — Student: Feminine — ending -а. — Teacher: And "музе́й"? — Student: Masculine — ending -й. — Teacher: Good. And "окно́"? — Student: Neuter — ending -о.
Why gender matters
Gender controls everything that agrees with the noun: adjectives, past tense verbs, demonstratives (э́тот/э́та/э́то), possessives. A gender mistake cascades through the whole sentence.
Visible agreement: "э́то … но́вый / но́вая / но́вое"
| Masculine | но́вый | э́то но́вый дом (this is a new house) |
| Feminine | но́вая | э́то но́вая кни́га (this is a new book) |
| Neuter | но́вое | э́то но́вое окно́ (this is a new window) |
| Plural (all genders) | но́вые | э́то но́вые студе́нты (these are new students) |