Cases show the roles that nouns play in a sentence. There are six cases in Russian and the endings of nouns change according to their case. The nominative case shows us who or what is performing the action of a verb (the subiect); singular means there's only one actor/subject.
Russian words are divided randomly into three groups, known as “genders”. These groups are masculine, feminine and neuter. Russian has no direct article (the) or indirect article (а), so we have to look at the ending of each word to determine its gender.
So, the only ending “shared” by more than one gender is the soft sign (ь). These are the only nouns where you have to learn the gender, but they are a small group (and three-quarters of them are feminine); often they are “naturally” masculine or feminine - e.g. царь (tsar) is masculine and дочь (daughter) is feminine.
It wil be helpful when you are learning case endings to distinguish between feminine nouns which end in я and those which end in ия as they often behave differently (and similarly for neuter nouns ending in e and ие).
There are a few exceptions to these pattems. The following nouns are masculine (because of their meaning):
дедушка - grandfather; мужчина - man
дядя – uncle; daddy - папа
The diminutive form of men's first names have feminine endings (e.g. Александр – Саша, Павел - Паша).
Nouns ending in мя are neuter (время - time); кофе – coffee is masculine.
Russian words are divided randomly into three groups, known as “genders”. These groups are masculine, feminine and neuter. Russian has no direct article (the) or indirect article (а), so we have to look at the ending of each word to determine its gender.
| Gender | Endings | Example | Translation |
| Masculine (dictionary symbol ) | consonant й ь | журнал музей автомобиль | magazine museum car |
| Feminine (dictionary symbol ) | а я ия ь | газета неделя Россия дочь | newspaper week Russia daughter |
| Neuter (dictionary symbol ) | о е ие | место поле здание | place field building |
So, the only ending “shared” by more than one gender is the soft sign (ь). These are the only nouns where you have to learn the gender, but they are a small group (and three-quarters of them are feminine); often they are “naturally” masculine or feminine - e.g. царь (tsar) is masculine and дочь (daughter) is feminine.
It wil be helpful when you are learning case endings to distinguish between feminine nouns which end in я and those which end in ия as they often behave differently (and similarly for neuter nouns ending in e and ие).
There are a few exceptions to these pattems. The following nouns are masculine (because of their meaning):
дедушка - grandfather; мужчина - man
дядя – uncle; daddy - папа
The diminutive form of men's first names have feminine endings (e.g. Александр – Саша, Павел - Паша).
Nouns ending in мя are neuter (время - time); кофе – coffee is masculine.
Grrrrrrr ... :-)
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