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You already know very well that nouns in Russian can be of мужского (он) /masculine (he)/, женского (она) /feminine (she)/ or среднего (оно) /neuter (it)/ gender.
I'll remind you a rule:
| he | she | it |
| - (end in consonant) брат /brother/ шкаф /wardrobe/ - а папа /dad/ дедушка /grandfather/ |
- а мама /mom/ полка /shelf/ |
- о окно /window/ |
| - я дядя /uncle/ These words always denote a person (they are animate nouns)! |
- я семья /family/ тётя /aunt/ |
- е море /sea/ |
| - ь стиль /style/ |
- ь кровать /bed/ дочь /daughter/ |
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Gender of nouns ending in -ь needs to be memorized! |
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It is difficult to determine the gender of nouns ending in -ь. Such words should be memorized. However, there are some secrets I want to entrust you with.
1. If a word you met ends in -ь in the text, pay attention to adjacent words, especially adjectives and verbs in the past tense. For example, you read: "Спортсмен получил золотую медаль" /Sportsmen got a gold medal/. The word "медаль" /medal/ is used in accusative case, and adjective "золотую" /gold/ in accusative case and femenine gender. This means that the word "медаль" is a word of feminine gender.
2. Remember! Aways are reffered to masculine gender:
- names of months (октябрь /October/, июнь /June/);
- words ending in -арь (словарь /dictionary/, календарь /calendar/);
- words ending in -тель (учитель /teacher/, выключатель /switch/).
3. Remember! Aways are reffered to feminine gender :
- words ending in -чь, -шь, -щь (ночь /night/, мышь /mouse/, вещь /thing/ etc);
- words ending in -ость (they are derived from adjectives; сухой - сухость /dry - dryness/, мягкий - мягкость /soft - softness/);
- words ending in -бь, -вь, -дь, -зь, -сь, -ть (любовь /love/, тетрадь /notebook/ etc).
Exceptions: голубь /dove/, лебедь /swan/, дождь /rain/, гвоздь /nail/ are the words of masculine gender!
4. Words ending in -ль, -нь, -рь can be both of masculine and feminine gender.
