Noun gender

What you will practice

• Treat a consonant ending as masculine and -а or -я as feminine.
• Treat -о or -е as neuter.
• Remember that папа is masculine, and choose моё for a neuter noun.

Explanation

Three endings

A noun ending in a consonant is masculine: стол, брат. A noun ending in -а or -я is usually feminine: книга, неделя. A noun ending in -о or -е is neuter: окно, море. The word это does not show gender. Это стол, Это книга, and Это окно all use it.

People

People can override the ending. папа ends in -а and is masculine. мама ends in -а and is feminine, which the ending already suggests. Use мой папа, not моя папа. The meaning decides. A job or a relative is a common place for this exception, so папа is the one to memorize here.

мой, моя, моё

Possessives agree. мой стол is masculine. моя книга is feminine. моё окно is neuter, and the standard spelling uses ё, not е. This lesson asks you to choose that form rather than type it, so the two spellings are not both treated as right. мой окно gives the neuter noun a masculine word.

Examples

1. Это стол.masculine
2. Это книга.feminine
3. Это окно.neuter
4. мой папаa masculine person ending in -а
5. моё окноa neuter possessive

Common mistakes

• папа is masculine. The ending -а does not make it feminine.
• The neuter possessive in this lesson is моё, with ё.