In Russian, nouns come in three genders: masculine (table, young man, contract), female (wall, bird, night) and middle (window, happiness, subway). It is necessary to correctly determine the gender of nouns in order to correctly coordinate them with other members of the sentence in speech. In most cases there are no difficulties: we know, for example, that the combinations taxi drove up, sore callus are correct, while the phrases taxi drove up, sore callus- this is a gross violation of the morphological norms of the Russian language.

However, there are nouns for which the definition of gender can be difficult. Further, groups of such nouns are considered and rules for determining the gender are given.

1. Indeclinable nouns Correct: funny pony or funny pony, sweet kiwi or sweet kiwi, beautiful Tbilisi or beautiful Tbilisi

Indeclinable nouns are called nouns that do not change in cases, i.e. have no case endings and retain the same form in any case and number. Their gender is determined based on which thematic group the word belongs to.

1. Words denoting inanimate objects, are mostly nouns neuter:city ​​taxi, elegant muffler, crystal sconce, ripe mango, dangerous tsunami etc. The exceptions in this group are:

- the words male: sirocco (dangerous sirocco), suluguni (delicious suluguni), tornado (destructive tornado)

- the words female: avenue (first avenue), kohlrabi (fresh kohlrabi), salami (delicious salami).

A number of inanimate nouns have two generic forms: coffee - masculine and, as a valid option, neuter (tasty/delicious coffee); penalty - masculine and neuter (fair/fair penalty).

2 . Words denoting animals, birds, fish, insects, should be considered nouns male(funny chimpanzee, white cockatoo, kangaroo jumped up). However, if the female animal is meant, then the name refers to the feminine gender. (the kangaroo was carrying a cub in a bag). Remember exceptions: nouns female are ivasi (delicious ivasi), hummingbird (colorful hummingbird), tsetse (dangerous tsetse).

Names of languages(Hindi, Swahili, Bengali etc.) refer to masculine. Word Esperanto It is permissible to use both in the masculine and in the neuter gender ( famous/famous Esperanto).

place names belong to the same gender as common nouns denoting generic concepts (i.e., according to the gender of words city, river, mountain etc.). For example: Sochi - this is the city, the word city masculine, hence the word Sochi also masculine (sunny Sochi); Mississippi→ river→zh.r. ( full-flowing Mississippi).

Names of newspapers, magazines, enterprises, organizations etc. belong to the same gender as common nouns denoting generic concepts ( newspaper, magazine, company etc.). For example: "Daily World" - newspaper, word newspaper feminine, hence the name "Daily World" also feminine ( "Daily World" published); "Geo"→journal→m.r. ( interesting "Geo").

Most of the words for a person(by profession, social status, etc.), are nouns male(even if it's a woman): attaché (military attaché), croupier (experienced croupier), entertainer, maestro, rentier, referee etc.

The words lady, miss,madam refer to feminine(young lady, pretty miss).

Nouns counterpart, incognito, protégé are bigenetic: the use of these words in the masculine or feminine gender depends on the gender of the person called (my counterpart, my counterpart).

gender is determined by the end

feminine - ending a, zero (you can substitute it is mine)

masculine - zero ending (OH MY)

neuter gender - zero ending, ie (it's mine)

In order to determine the gender of a particular noun, you just need to agree or easier to apply pronouns with it: mine, mine or mine, or replace it with the word: he, she or it:

Thus, we get one of the three genders that exist in the Russian language.

For greater clarity and memorization, I will give a table-scheme below, referring to which, you can quickly and correctly determine the desired genus.

To understand how to determine the gender of a noun, for clarity, we use this picture



Now we see that in order to determine the gender of a noun, we can at help auxiliary words. But, this is not the only thing that will help us. To determine the gender, we can also use hints in the form of word endings. As a rule, feminine nouns end in a or iquot ;, the middle one has the endings e or and, but the masculine either does not have an ending at all, or in quot; or consonant.

But. In any rule, there is what is called an exception. When determining the gender of a noun, there are also butquot ;, that is, exceptions that must be remembered.

It is necessary to ask a question regarding a specific word, the gender of which needs to be determined: WHOSE / WHOSE / WHOSE is / she / he, respectively?

I remember how we asked this question in chorus in class and also answered it together: it is mine (neuter), she is mine (female) or he is mine (male).

The ending of a noun in this matter will not help much, since, for example, often in masculine words there is a so-called ending aquot ;: man, grandfather, etc.

The gender of a noun is determined by the end of the word.

Feminine has the endings aya_ Auxiliary question: she is mine

The masculine gender ends in _ (zero). Sub-question: He is mine

The middle gender has the ending ie_. Auxiliary question: is it mo.

The gender of nouns is fairly easy to determine.

Nouns female genders end in and I.(My mother- the best Mom in the world. Noun - mother refers to feminine nouns).

Nouns male genders end in hard consonant.(Today I dreamed of a beautiful dream. Noun - dream refers to masculine nouns).

Nouns middle genders end in oh e. (Window was open and you could hear him talking to someone. Noun - window refers to neuter nouns).

However, one should not forget about the gender of indeclinable nouns.

Determining the gender of nouns by ending is not entirely correct.

And all because many words that end in a vowel (for example, in -а-, -я-, etc.)) are not always feminine.

And nouns that have a soft sign at the end can be both feminine and masculine.

To determine the gender of a noun, it is best to resort to the help of other parts of speech: an adjective or a pronoun.

Dad - he is mine; strict dad (masculine); the horse is mine; gray horse (masculine); the shadow is mine; small shadow (feminine) and so on.

Thus, auxiliary words will help determine the gender of a noun.

We were taught to determine the gender of a noun in school by asking the appropriate question to it.

Example: Pen whose? - My! So the noun pen - female.

Chair whose? - My! Here the noun chair is masculine. There is also a neuter gender and it answers the question whose. For example, the task whose"? My!

We were taught in school like this:

If the word corresponds to the possessive form - HE'S MINE, then it is of course masculine.

If this very form sounds like - SHE IS MINE, then it is undoubtedly feminine.

And finally, if the word fits the wording - IT IS MINE, then it is undoubtedly neuter gender.

In order to determine the gender of a noun, it is worth resorting to the use of auxiliary words, which will help determine the gender of the noun.

As for such auxiliary words, they are given in this table:



It turns out that if we take the word manquot ;, then to determine the gender we substitute the auxiliary word he man and we get, respectively, the masculine gender.

This is an independent part of speech that denotes an object and answers the questions who? what?
The value of the object expressed nouns, combines the names of a wide variety of objects and phenomena, namely: 1) the names of specific cabbage soup and objects (house, tree, notebook, book, briefcase, bed, lamp); 2) the names of living beings (man, engineer, girl, youth, deer, mosquito); 3) the names of various substances (oxygen, gasoline, lead, sugar, salt); 4) names of various phenomena of nature and social life (storm, frost, rain, holiday, war); 5) the names of abstract properties and signs, actions and states (freshness, whiteness, blueness, illness, expectation, murder).
initial form noun- nominative singular.
Nouns are: own (Moscow, Russia, Sputnik) and common nouns (country, dream, night), animate (horse, elk, brother) and inanimate (table, field, dacha).
Nouns belong to the masculine (friend, young man, deer), feminine (girlfriend, grass, dry land) and middle (window, sea, field) gender. Names nouns change in cases and numbers, that is, they decline. Three declensions are distinguished for nouns (aunt, uncle, Maria - I declension; horse, gorge, genius - II declension; mother, night, silence - III declension).
In a sentence nouns usually act as a subject or object, but can be any other members of the sentence. For example: When the soul in chains, in the soul screams yearning, and the heart longs for boundless freedom (K. Balmont). I was lying in the scent of azaleas (V. Bryusov)

Proper and common nouns

Proper nouns- These are the names of individuals, single objects. Proper nouns include: 1) names, surnames, nicknames, nicknames (Peter, Ivanov, Sharik); 2) geographical names (Caucasus, Siberia, Central Asia); 3) astronomical names (Jupiter, Venus, Saturn); 4) names of holidays (New Year, Teacher's Day, Defender of the Fatherland Day); 5) names of newspapers, magazines, works of art, enterprises (Trud newspaper, Resurrection novel, Enlightenment publishing house), etc.
Common nouns they call homogeneous objects that have something in common, the same, some kind of similarity (a person, a bird, furniture).
All names own are written with a capital letter (Moscow, Arctic), some are also taken in quotation marks (cinema "Cosmos", the newspaper "Vechernyaya Moskva").
In addition to differences in meaning and spelling proper nouns have a number of grammatical features: 1) they are not used in the plural (except for the cases of designation of different objects and persons that are called the same: We have two Ira and three Olya in the class); 2) are not combined with numerals.
Proper nouns can become common nouns, and common nouns- in own, for example: Narcissus (the name of a handsome young man in ancient Greek mythology) - narcissus (flower); Boston (city in the USA) - boston (wool), boston (slow waltz), boston (card game); work - the newspaper "Trud".

Animate and inanimate nouns

Animated nouns serve as the names of living beings (people, animals, birds); answer the question who?
Inanimate nouns serve as the names of inanimate objects, as well as objects of the plant world; answer the question what? Initially, in the Russian language, the category of animation-inanimateness developed as a semantic (semantic) one. Gradually, with the development of the language, this category became grammatical, so the division of nouns into animated and inanimate does not always coincide with the division of everything that exists in nature into living and non-living.
An indicator of the animateness or inanimateness of a noun is the coincidence of a number of grammatical forms. Animated and inanimate nouns differ from each other in the form of the accusative plural. At animate nouns this form is the same as the genitive case, and inanimate nouns- with the nominative case, for example: no friends - I see friends (but: no tables - I see tables), no brothers - I see brothers (but: no lights - I see lights), no horses - I see horses (but: no shadows - I see shadows), no children - I see children (but: no seas - I see seas).
For masculine nouns (except for nouns ending in -а, -я), this difference is preserved in the singular, for example: there is no friend - I see a friend (but: there is no home - I see a house).
To animate noun may include nouns that should be considered by value inanimate, for example: "our nets dragged a dead man"; discard a trump ace, sacrifice a queen, buy dolls, paint matryoshkas.
To inanimate noun may include nouns that, according to the meaning they express, should be attributed to animated, for example: to study pathogenic microbes; neutralize typhoid bacilli; observe the embryo in its development; collect silkworm larvae, believe in your people; Gather huge crowds, arm armies.

Concrete, abstract, collective, real, singular nouns

According to the features of the expressed meaning, nouns can be divided into several groups: 1) specific nouns(chair, suit, room, roof), 2) abstract, or abstract, nouns(struggle, joy, good, evil, morality, whiteness), 3) collective nouns(beast, foolishness, foliage, linen, furniture); four) real nouns(cycle: gold, milk, sugar, honey); 5) singular nouns(pea, grain of sand, straw, pearl).
Specific nouns are called, which denote phenomena or objects of reality. They can be combined with cardinal, ordinal and collective numbers and form plural forms. For example: boy - boys, two boys, second boy, two boys; table - tables, two tables, the second table.
abstract, or abstract, are nouns that denote some abstract action, state, quality, property or concept. Abstract nouns have one form of number (only singular or only plural), do not combine with cardinal numbers, but can be combined with words many, few, how many, etc. For example: grief - a lot of grief, little grief. How much grief!
Collective nouns are called, which denote a set of persons or objects as an indivisible whole. Collective nouns have the form of only the singular and are not combined with numerals, for example: youth, old people, foliage, birch forest, aspen. Wed: The old people talked for a long time about the life of the young and the interests of the youth. - Whose are you, old man? The peasants, in essence, always remained owners. In no country in the world has the peasantry ever been truly free. On the first of September all children will go to school. - The children gathered in the yard and expected the arrival of adults. All students successfully passed the state exams. - Students take an active part in the work of charitable foundations. Nouns old people, peasantry, children, students are collective, the formation of plural forms from them is impossible.
real nouns are called, which denote a substance that cannot be divided into its component parts. These words can name chemical elements, their compounds, alloys, drugs, various materials, types of food and crops, etc. Real nouns have one form of number (only singular or only plural), are not combined with cardinal numbers, but can be combined with words that name units of measure kilogram, liter, ton. For example: sugar - a kilogram of sugar, milk - two liters of milk, wheat - a ton of wheat.
singular nouns are a variety real nouns. These nouns name one instance of those items that make up the set. Compare: pearl - pearl, potato - potato, sand - grain of sand, pea - pea, snow - snowflake, straw - straw.

gender of nouns

Genus- this is the ability of nouns to be combined with the forms of agreed words defined for each generic variety: my house, my hat, my window.
By sign gender nouns divided into three groups: 1) masculine nouns(house, horse, sparrow, uncle), 2) feminine nouns(water, earth, dust, rye), 3) neuter nouns(face, sea, tribe, gorge).
In addition, there is a small group common nouns, which are able to serve as expressive names for both male and female persons (cry-baby, touchy, good fellow, upstart, grabber).
The grammatical meaning of gender is created by the system of case endings of a given noun in the singular (thus, noun gender distinguished only in the singular).

Masculine, feminine and neuter nouns

To masculine include: 1) nouns with a base on a hard or soft consonant and a zero ending in the nominative case (table, horse, reed, knife, crying); 2) some nouns ending in -а (я) like grandfather, uncle; 3) some nouns ending in -o, -e such as saraishko, bread, house; 4) noun apprentice.
To feminine applies: 1) most nouns with the ending -а (я) (grass, aunt, earth) in the nominative case; 2) part of nouns with a base in a soft consonant, as well as in w and w and a zero ending in the nominative case (laziness, rye, silence).
To neuter include: 1) nouns ending in -o, -e in the nominative case (window, field); 2) ten nouns per -mya (burden, time, tribe, flame, stirrup, etc.); 3) the noun "child".
The nouns doctor, professor, architect, deputy, guide, author, etc., naming a person by profession, occupation, are masculine. However, they can also refer to females. The coordination of definitions in this case is subject to the following rules: 1) an unseparated definition must be in the form of the masculine gender, for example: A young doctor Sergeev appeared on our site. A new version of the article of the law was proposed by the young deputy Petrova; 2) a separate definition after a proper name should be put in the feminine form, for example: Professor Petrova, already known to the trainees, successfully operated on the patient. The predicate should be put in the feminine form if: 1) there is a proper name in the sentence before the predicate, for example: Director Sidorova received a prize. Guide Petrova led the students through the oldest streets of Moscow; 2) the form of the predicate is the only indicator that we are talking about a woman, and it is important for the writer to emphasize this, for example: The principal of the school turned out to be a good mother. Note. Such constructions should be used with great care, since not all of them correspond to the norms of book and written speech. General nouns Some nouns with the endings -а (я) can serve as expressive names for both male and female persons. These are nouns of the general gender, for example: crybaby, touchy, sneak, slob, quiet. Depending on the gender of the person they designate, these nouns can be assigned either to the feminine or to the masculine gender: little crybaby - little crybaby, such a wretch - such a wretch, a terrible slob - a terrible slob. In addition to such words, nouns of the general gender can include: 1) invariable surnames: Makarenko, Malykh, Defier, Michon, Hugo, etc.; 2) colloquial forms of some proper names: Sasha, Valya, Zhenya. The words “doctor”, “professor”, “architect”, “deputy”, “tour guide”, “author”, which name a person by profession, type of activity, do not belong to nouns of the general gender. They are masculine nouns. General nouns are emotionally colored words, have a pronounced evaluative meaning, are used mainly in colloquial speech, therefore they are not characteristic of scientific and official business styles of speech. Using them in a work of art, the author seeks to emphasize the colloquial nature of the statement. For example: - You see how it is, on the other side. She turns everything shameful with us. Whatever he sees - everything is not right, everything is not like mom's. So right? - Oh, I don't know! She's a crybaby, and that's all! Aunt Enya laughed a little. Such a kind laugh, light sounds and unhurried, like her gait. - Well, yes! You are our man, knight. You won't shed tears. And she is a girl. Tender. Mom's dad (T. Polikarpova). Gender of indeclinable nouns Foreign common nouns indeclinable nouns are distributed by gender as follows: The masculine gender includes: 1) names of male persons (dandy, maestro, porter); 2) names of animals and birds (chimpanzee, cockatoo, hummingbird, kangaroo, pony, flamingo); 3) the words coffee, penalties, etc. The feminine gender includes the names of females (miss, frau, lady). The middle gender includes the names of inanimate objects (coats, mufflers, necklines, depots, metro). Indeclinable nouns of foreign origin denoting animals and birds are usually masculine (flamingos, kangaroos, cockatoos, chimpanzees, ponies). If, according to the conditions of the context, it is required to indicate the female of the animal, the agreement is carried out according to the feminine gender. The nouns kangaroo, chimpanzee, pony are combined with the past tense verb in the feminine form. For example: Kangaroo carried a kangaroo in a bag. The chimpanzee, apparently a female, was feeding the cub a banana. The mother pony was standing in a stall with a small foal. The noun tsetse is an exception. Its gender is determined by the gender of the word fly (feminine). For example: Tsetse bit a tourist. If it is difficult to determine the gender of an indeclinable noun, it is advisable to refer to a spelling dictionary. For example: haiku (Japanese three-line) - cf., takku (Japanese five-line) - f.r., su (coin) - cf., flamenco (dance) - cf., taboo (prohibition) - cf. .R. Some indeclinable nouns are fixed only in dictionaries of new words. For example: sushi (Japanese dish) - cf., taro (cards) - pl. (genus not defined). The gender of indeclinable foreign geographical names, as well as the names of newspapers and magazines, is determined by the generic common word, for example: Po (river), Bordeaux (city), Mississippi (river), Erie (lake), Congo (river), Ontario (lake), "Humanite" (newspaper). The genus of indeclinable abbreviated words in most cases is determined by the genus of the stem word of the phrase, for example: Moscow State University (university - m.r.) MFA (academy - f.r.). The gender of compound nouns written with a hyphen The gender of compound nouns written with a hyphen is usually determined: 1) by the first part, if both parts change: my chair-bed - my chair-bed (cf. ), a new amphibious aircraft - a new amphibious aircraft (m.r.); 2) for the second part, if the first does not change: a sparkling firebird - a sparkling firebird (female), a huge swordfish - a huge swordfish (female). In some cases, the gender is not determined, since the compound word is used only in the plural: fabulous boots-walkers - fabulous boots-walkers (plural). Number of nouns Nouns are used in the singular when talking about one subject (horse, stream, crack, field). Nouns are used in the plural when talking about two or more objects (horses, streams, cracks, fields). According to the features of the forms and meanings of the singular and plural, the following are distinguished: 1) nouns that have forms of both the singular and the plural; 2) nouns that have only the singular form; 3) nouns that have only the plural form. The first group includes nouns with a concrete-objective meaning, denoting counted objects and phenomena, for example: house - houses; street - streets; person people; city ​​dweller - city dwellers. The nouns of the second group include: 1) the names of many identical objects (children, teachers, raw materials, spruce forest, foliage); 2) names of objects with a real value (peas, milk, raspberries, porcelain, kerosene, chalk); 3) the names of a quality or attribute (freshness, whiteness, dexterity, melancholy, courage); 4) names of actions or states (mowing, felling, delivery, running around, surprise, reading); 5) proper names as names of single objects (Moscow, Tambov, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi); 6) the words burden, udder, flame, crown. The nouns of the third group include: 1) the names of compound and paired items (scissors, glasses, watches, abacus, jeans, trousers); 2) names of materials or waste, residues (bran, cream, perfume, wallpaper, sawdust, ink, 3) names of time intervals (holidays, days, weekdays); 4) names of actions and states of nature (troubles, negotiations, frosts, shoots, twilight); 5) some geographical names (Lyubertsy, Mytishchi, Sochi, Carpathians, Sokolniki); 6) the names of some games (blind-seek, hide-and-seek, chess, backgammon, money). The formation of plural forms of nouns is mainly done with the help of endings. In some cases, there may also be some changes in the stem of the word, namely: 1) softening of the final consonant of the stem (neighbor - neighbors, devil - devils, knee - knees); 2) alternation of final consonants of the stem (ear - ears, eye - eyes); 3) adding a suffix to the plural stem (husband - husband\j\a], chair - chair\j\a], sky - heaven, miracle - miracle-es-a, son - son-ov \j\a]) ; 4) loss or replacement of formative suffixes in the singular (master - gentlemen, chicken - chickens, calf - tel-yat-a, bear cub - cubs). For some nouns, plural forms are formed by changing the stem, for example: person (singular) - people (plural), child (singular) - children (plural). For indeclinable nouns, the number is determined syntactically: a young chimpanzee (singular) - a lot of chimpanzees (plural). Case of nouns A case is an expression of the relationship of an object called a noun to other objects. In Russian grammar, six cases of nouns are distinguished, the meanings of which are generally expressed using case questions: The nominative case is considered direct, and all the rest are indirect. To determine the case of a noun in a sentence, you need to: 1) find the word to which this noun refers; 2) put a question from this word to a noun: to see (whom? what?) a brother, to be proud (of what?) of success. Homonymous endings are often found among the case endings of nouns. For example, in the forms of the genitive case from the door, the dative case to the door, the prepositional case about the door, there is not the same ending -i, but three different homonym endings. The same homonyms are the endings of the dative and prepositional cases in the forms around the country and about the country. Declension types of nouns Declension is a change of a noun in cases and numbers. This change is expressed using a system of case endings and shows the grammatical relationship of this noun to other words in the phrase and sentence, for example: School\a\ is open. The construction of the school\s\ is completed. Graduates send greetings to schools \ e \ According to the peculiarities of case endings in the singular, a noun has three declensions. The type of declension can only be defined in the singular. Nouns of the first declension The first declension includes: 1) feminine nouns with the ending -а (-я) in the nominative singular (country, land, army); 2) masculine nouns, denote people, with the ending -а (я) in the nominative singular (uncle, young man, Petya). 3) nouns of general gender with the endings -а (я) in the nominative case (cry-baby, sleepyhead, bully). Nouns of the first declension in indirect cases of the singular have the following endings: It is necessary to distinguish between the forms of nouns in -ya and -iya: Marya - Maria, Natalya - Natalia, Daria - Daria, Sophia - Sofia. Nouns of the first declension in -iya (army, guard, biology, line, series, Maria) in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases end in -и. In writing, confusion of the endings of nouns of the first declension into -ey and -iya often causes errors. Words ending in -ey (alley, battery, gallery, idea) have the same endings as feminine nouns with a soft consonant stem such as earth, will, bath, etc. Nouns of the second declension The second declension includes: 1) nouns masculine with a zero ending in the nominative singular (house, horse, museum); 2) masculine nouns ending in -о (-е) in the nominative singular (domishko, saraishko); 3) neuter nouns ending in -o, -e in the nominative singular (window, sea, gorge); 4) noun apprentice. Masculine nouns of the second declension have the following endings in the oblique singular: In the prepositional singular of masculine nouns, the ending -e predominates. The ending -у (у) is accepted only by inanimate masculine nouns if: a) they are used with prepositions в and на; b) have (in most cases) the character of stable combinations denoting the place, state, time of action. For example: an eyesore; stay in debt on the edge of death; grazing; go about; boil in their own juice; be in good standing. But: to work in the sweat of your brow, in the sunshine; grammatical structure; in a right angle; in some cases, etc. It is necessary to distinguish between the forms of nouns: -ie and -e: teaching - learning, treatment - treatment, silence - silence, torment - torment, radiance - radiance. Nouns of the second declension ending in -й, -е in the prepositional case have the ending -и. Words on -ey (sparrow, museum, mausoleum, hoarfrost, lyceum) have the same endings as masculine nouns with a base on a soft consonant such as horse, elk, deer, fight, etc. Nouns of the third declension The third declension includes names feminine nouns with a zero ending in the nominative singular (door, night, mother, daughter). Nouns of the third declension in the indirect cases of the singular have the following endings: The words mother and daughter, related to the third declension, when changed in all cases, except for the nominative and accusative, have the suffix -er- in the stem: Declension of plural nouns In case endings plural differences between individual types of declension of nouns are insignificant. In the dative, instrumental and prepositional cases, the nouns of all three declensions have the same endings. In the nominative case, the endings -i, -ы and | -а(-я) predominate. The ending -e is less common. You should remember the formation of the genitive plural of some nouns, where the ending can be zero or -ov. This includes words that name: 1) paired and compound objects: (no) felt boots, boots, stockings, collars, days (but: socks, rails, glasses); 2) some nationalities (in most cases, the stem of words ends in n and r): (no) English, Bashkirs, Buryats, Georgians, Turkmens, Mordvins, Ossetians, Romanians (but: Uzbeks, Kirghiz, Yakuts); 3) some units of measurement: (five) amperes, watts, volts, arshins, hertz; 4) some vegetables and fruits: (kilogram) apples, raspberries, olives (but: apricots, oranges, bananas, tangerines, tomatoes, tomatoes). In some cases, plural endings perform a meaningful function in words. For example: dragon teeth - saw teeth, tree roots - fragrant roots, sheets of paper - tree leaves, scratched knees (knee - “joint”) - compound knees (knee - “dance technique”) - pipe knees (knee - “ joint at the pipe"). Variable nouns Variable nouns include: 1) ten nouns per -mya (burden, time, udder, banner, name, flame, tribe, seed, stirrup, crown); 2) noun path; 3) noun child. Variable nouns have the following features: 1) the ending -i in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases of the singular - as in the III declension; 2) the ending -em in the instrumental case of the singular as in the second declension; 3) the suffix -en- in all forms, except for the nominative and accusative cases of the singular (only for nouns in -mya). The word way has case forms of the third declension, with the exception of the instrumental case of the singular, which is characterized by the form of the second declension. Wed: night - nights, way - ways (in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases); the steering wheel - the steering wheel, the way - the way (in the instrumental case). The noun child in the singular retains the archaic declension, which is currently not actually used, and in the plural it has the usual forms, except for the instrumental case, which is characterized by the ending -mi (the same ending is characteristic of the form people). Indeclinable nouns Indeclinable nouns do not have case forms, these words do not have endings. The grammatical meanings of individual cases in relation to such nouns are expressed syntactically, for example: drink coffee, buy cashews, Dumas novels. Indeclinable nouns include: 1) many nouns of foreign origin with final vowels -о, -е, -и, -у, -ю, -а (solo, coffee, hobby, zebu, cashew, bra, Dumas, Zola); 2) foreign-language surnames denoting females ending in a consonant (Michon, Sagan); 3) Russian and Ukrainian surnames ending in -o, -ih, -y (Durnovo, Krutykh, Sedykh); 4) complex abbreviated words of an alphabetic and mixed character (Moscow State University, Ministry of Internal Affairs, head of the department). The syntactic function of indeclinable nouns is determined only in context. For example: The walrus asked the Kangaroo (R.p.): How can you stand the heat? I'm shivering from the cold! - Kangaroo (I.p.) said to Walrus. (B. Zakhoder) Kangaroo is an indeclinable noun, denotes an animal, masculine, in a sentence it is an object and subject. Morphological analysis of a noun Morphological analysis of a noun includes the allocation of four permanent features (proper-common, animate-inanimate, gender, declension) and two inconstant (case and number). The number of constant features of a noun can be increased by including such features as concrete and abstract, as well as real and collective nouns. Scheme of morphological analysis of a noun.

Genus- a grammatical category inherent in different parts of speech in the singular and consisting in the distribution of words into three classes, traditionally correlated with gender characteristics or their absence.

There are three kinds of nouns in Russian:

Male (he) Masculine nouns in the singular nominative case have endings -and I, and zero (dad, uncle, knife, table, hawk).

Female (she) Feminine nouns in the singular nominative case have the endings - and I, and zero (wife, nanny, night, glory, desert).

Medium (it) Neutral nouns in the singular nominative case have endings -o, -e (swamp, gold, sun, lake, jam).

There is also a class of words generic, which, depending on the context, can be used in both masculine and feminine forms ( bore, sissy, crybaby, clever, greedy).

Definition of noun gender

To determine the feminine gender of inanimate nouns, the ending looks. For animate nouns, the defining feature is that they belong to female beings ( girl, cat). In order not to confuse feminine and masculine nouns at the end, you need to substitute the pronoun “she, mine” to check. For example, a song (she, mine).

The masculine gender of nouns is also determined by the end of the initial form. In order not to confuse the gender of nouns ending in a soft sign, also substitute the pronoun “he, mine” to check ( stump, day).

Neutral nouns are determined by the endings of the initial form and by substituting the pronouns "it, mine" ( field, window). Please note that the group of inflected nouns ending in -my also belongs to the neuter gender ( tribe, seed etc.). There are almost no animate nouns among neuter gender nouns, their number is very small ( child, being, animal).

Among nouns, there are several special groups, the definition of gender in which is difficult. These include nouns of the general gender, as well as indeclinable and compound words.

Correlate the meanings of common nouns with their belonging to female or male animated objects. For example, slut girl(feminine), smart boy(masculine). Common nouns are those that denote the qualities of people ( glutton, ignoramus, crybaby) or the name of persons by position, profession, occupation ( architect Petrov - architect Petrov).

It must be taken into account that the gender of indeclinable nouns is associated with their animateness / inanimateness, specific / generic concept. For animate indeclinable nouns, determine gender by gender (monsieur, miss). Nouns that give names to animals, birds, are masculine (pony, kangaroo, cockatoo). The inanimate are usually neuter ( coat, muffler). Exceptions are words whose gender is determined by association with generic names: kohlrabi - cabbage(feminine), Hindi - language(masculine), etc.

In order to determine the gender of indeclinable proper nouns denoting geographical names, it is necessary to choose a generic concept ( lake, city, river, desert etc.). For example, city ​​of Rio de Janeiro(masculine) gobi desert(feminine).

The type of abbreviations is determined by the type of the leading word of the “deciphered” phrase: UN - United Nations, the leading word is “organization” (feminine).

See also:

We offer online tests:

Everyone probably knows the joke about “coffee” and “whiskey” (usually found in the version with “ministry” and the swear word “shit”). But for some words, the gender is really difficult to determine. Now you will know everything.

For those who are preparing for the main school exam

Correctly: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement

MFA is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And as we know, the genus of abbreviations is used according to the main word - in our case, this is “ministry”. That is, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement. But no. If you type in Google or Yandex in the “news” tab of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, everything will be exclusively masculine. Because MFA is such a well-established abbreviation that it has almost become a masculine noun. And hence the masculine gender of the predicate. But at the same time, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Education and Science remain words of the middle gender.

Correctly: saw how strong the tsunami was?

With natural disasters, too, not everything is clear. It seems that a tornado is exactly “it”, of a neuter gender. Because it ends in -o. Well, it means "tornado". A tsunami is a wave. It means "she". But no. In fact, "tornado" is masculine. And the "tsunami", even though it's a wave, is average. Do not wonder. It happens.

Correctly: one cappuccino

The dispute of the century among coffee lovers. It's really complicated here. With coffee, everything is clear and understandable: there was “one coffee” - some could not remember and said “one coffee” - then in dictionaries they were allowed to use both options in oral speech. But at the same time, there was only one literary version: coffee is it. And it's better to always say that. True coffee lovers will agree with us.

And now for the varieties. The fact is that even in the 2005 edition of the spelling dictionary, “cappuccino” and “glace” (if you rounded your eyes because we didn’t write double letters - urgently read the coffee issue of literacy) were exclusively of the middle gender. Dot. There were no other options given. But "espresso" - attention! At the same time, it was masculine. Yes, one cappuccino and one espresso. Absurd. The compilers of the dictionary came to their senses and after some time made all these words (and “coffee” too) of two genders: both masculine and neuter. Well, to be sure they are not mistaken. It is strange that women have not yet been thought of. But real coffee lovers believe that all this is still masculine (by pure chance, “Literacy on Mel” also turned out to be a coffee lover - and he can’t advise writing and speaking in any other way).

Correctly: She is a great barista

No, we are not going to do another issue of "coffee literacy" (we can hardly restrain ourselves and will definitely be soon). But you can't say the same about the barista. Firstly, it is a coffee maker, that is, a specialist in making coffee. Not to be confused with the bartender. And secondly, he has a completely unambiguous gender - male. Even if the barista is a girl.

Correctly: would you like to try my tiramisu

We admit: everything is not as clear here as with the barista. And even harder than with cappuccino. But we take the risk. Tiramisu is defined in different ways: it is a cake, a cake, and a confectionery. But it’s also a dessert - it doesn’t matter if it’s about a cake or a cake. And here is the very case when determining the genus just helps to think about what it is. Well, other than that it's delicious.

Correctly: look at my graffiti on the wall

Scissors, curlers, graffiti. What do all these words have in common? No, it is useless to count the number of letters - everyone is different. Look for some patterns in writing - well, it's also an occupation. Useless. These words have a special gender, because they are not masculine, feminine, or even neuter, as we are used to. Graffiti, scissors and curlers are used only in the plural form (meet the smart term pluralia tantum - it's the same). So if you want to brag about graffiti, you will have to speak in the plural, even if you depicted one thing.

Correctly: cat ate my slipper

It so happened that the strongest doubts in the genus are in the words about shoes. Slipper or sneaker, shoe or shoe, sneaker or sneaker. Coincidence or not, but a slipper, shoe and sneaker without a pair are feminine. Although their male appearance is also very popular. Sometimes even more popular than the right one. And don't let cats chew on slippers or do anything worse.

Correctly: can't find ked

Even within sports shoes, there is no unanimity. For example, a sneaker without a pair for some reason is a girl, but a lonely sneaker is already a boy. So if you suddenly lost, then the sneaker, not the sneaker. But sneakers!

Correctly: where is your sandal?

We're done with shoes. But there is such an interesting word that it is simply impossible not to make out. We usually pronounce it in the plural - and that is wrong: sandals. We lose the last letter "and" at the end. And then in writing. Still, it is not so habitual for us to double vowels. But we are more concerned with the fate of the singular: sandal, sandal or sandal? According to the good old tradition, of course, the feminine gender is sandals (and sandals is the genitive plural).

Correctly: reserved seat / rail

For those who travel by train, recently arrived or are about to go. You definitely need to know these words so as not to disgrace yourself in front of the conductor. Let's start with the fact that the word "reserved seat" does not exist. Even if you called it “a reserved seat car”. In fact, "reserved seat" (from the German platzkarte - seat map) - means a boarding pass. And yes, it's feminine. And let's also remember the nursery rhyme: "Rails, rails, sleepers, sleepers, the train was belated." To keep the train running smoothly, remember: the sleeper is mine, but the rail is unexpectedly mine.