The category of the general gender of nouns. General gender of nouns in Russian: definition, examples
This class consists of animate nouns with a person meaning. This term and the concept of common gender were introduced into grammar for the first time by M.V. Lomonosov: “Some names derived from verbs: crybaby, drunkard, hypocrite essence of the common genus. For the most part, these are words that are a qualitative characteristic of a person (most often negative): fidget, ignoramus, laughter, dirty, chatterbox, greedy, greedy, grimacing, crabby, goofball, gulena, rogue etc.; these are expressive words.
General gender words must have an ending -and I. Similar nouns denote both male and female persons, i.e. their gender depends on the specific semantics of the word. All words dependent on these nouns agree in gender in semantics: our slut is our slob, my braggart is my braggart.
The composition of words of the general gender also includes a small group of diminutive names: Zhenya, Valya, Shura, Sasha.
A special group is made up of surnames of the type Hugo, Zola, Shevchenko, Belykh, Chavchavadze.
Words of the type snake, saw hat, fox and others, which in syntactic conditionality are used to name an expressive characteristic. Such words, denoting both male and female persons, do not change their gender, and in speech all words dependent on them agree with them formally, and not in meaning, as words of a general gender. Wed: round orphan - round orphan. But: Black Pearl has been removed from the field(about the football player Pele) (From the newspapers).
Also in Russian there are words with unmarked gender meaning. These are words that indicate both male and female. For example, in the class of masculine words, there is a group of nouns that can denote both a male and a female person: teacher, philosopher, professor, engineer, boss, doctor, physician etc. This group is large and productive, it includes primarily nouns with the meaning of a person by profession, occupation.
In a number of cases, correlates are formed from such words (the correlate is a member of a pair of mutually conditioned, correlative linguistic units) of the feminine gender, but in such a pair, the masculine word acts as a general name for a person in a specialty, without indicating his gender: teacher is a teacher.
The feminine correlate to such nouns may be stylistically neutral ( teacher), but may be stylistically reduced ( boss - colloquial, doctor - vernacular). In speech practice, the gender of such nouns is expressed syntactically: The doctor came - The doctor came.
Another group of words with an unmarked meaning are nouns denoting animals, fish, birds, insects. This includes masculine nouns. mosquito, sable, thrush, carp etc.; feminine nouns chicken, pike, cuckoo, fly etc.
Instruction
When determining the feminine gender of inanimate nouns, keep in mind that they have singular case endings -а, -я (wall, will) and zero if the noun ends in a soft sign (rye). For animate nouns, the defining feature is that they belong to female creatures (girl, cat). In order not to confuse feminine and masculine nouns at the end, substitute the pronoun “she, mine” for verification. For example, a song (she, mine).
Determine the masculine gender of nouns at the end of the form: zero for words ending in a consonant (house, table), -a, -ya - for animated nouns, male creatures (uncle, Seryozha). In order not to confuse the gender of nouns ending in a soft sign, also substitute the pronoun “he, mine” (stump, day) to check.
Determine nouns of the middle gender by the endings of the initial form -o, -e 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, creature, animal).
Among nouns, several special groups stand out, the gender in which is difficult. These include nouns of the general gender, indeclinable and compound words.
Match the meanings of common nouns with their belonging to female or male objects. For example, a girl is (feminine), a boy is a know-it-all (masculine). General nouns include those that denote the qualities of people (glutton, ignoramus, crybaby) or the name of persons by profession, position, occupation (Ivanov - architect Ivanov).
Keep in mind that the gender of indeclinable nouns is related to their animate / inanimate, 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). Inanimate are usually neuter (, muffler). Exceptions are words whose gender is determined by association with generic names: kohlrabi - cabbage (feminine), Hindi - language (masculine), etc.
To determine the gender of indeclinable proper nouns denoting geographical names, select a generic concept (, city, river, etc.). For example, the city of Rio de Janeiro (masculine), the Gobi Desert (feminine).
The gender of complex abbreviated words (abbreviations) is determined by the gender of the leading word of the “deciphered” phrase: UN - United Nations, the leading word is “organization” (feminine).
note
Some nouns have variant forms of the gender. At the same time, some of them are equal (aviary - aviary, banknotes - banknote), and the rest have stylistic marks: hall - hall (obsolete form), giraffe - giraffe (obsolete form).
Useful advice
For nouns that are used only in the plural form, the category of gender is not defined (whitewash, vice, weekdays).
Related article
Sources:
- types of the Russian language
To determine the gender of nouns, you must first determine the word that answers the question who, what. This is a noun. In Russian, it can be masculine, feminine or neuter.
Instruction
Determine the gender of a noun by ending or final consonant. The masculine gender includes words with a consonant and -y. For example, a house, a loaf. Nouns ending in -а, -я, -я belong to the feminine gender. For example, cousin, . The neuter gender includes nouns ending in -o, -e, -e. For example, a window, a dress.
See if the given noun is an exception. These include nouns ending in -ь. Such nouns can be either feminine or masculine. So, the dictionary is masculine, and the word notebook is feminine.
Pay attention to the gender of animate nouns. These are nouns that mean living beings. These words are either feminine or masculine. The exceptions are the child, which belongs to the middle gender. For animate nouns, determine the gender either by the natural sex or animal, or by the ending of the noun. The elephant is a masculine noun and the monkey is a feminine noun.
Correctly determine the gender of nouns denoting professions. They are masculine and feminine. At the same time, most of the nouns denoting professions are masculine: doctor, engineer,.
Pay special attention to the gender of borrowed nouns. Nouns of a foreign language often have -i, -u, -yu, which are atypical for the Russian language. Such nouns do not change either in numbers or in cases. The masculine gender includes the names and names of cities and islands. Women's names and surnames, names of rivers and names of newspapers are classified as feminine. The neuter gender refers to the names of inanimate objects.
note
Nouns that start with a consonant and -y are always masculine.
Most foreign feminine nouns end in –iya.
Nouns ending in the suffixes -onok, -enok are always masculine.
Related article
Sources:
- "Grammar of the Russian language in illustrations", Pekhlivanova K.I., Lebedeva M.N., 1985.
- how to determine the gender in Russian
Definition kind in Russian language is one of the most common tasks for people learning this language. In Russian language there are three kind- male, female and average. In addition, there is a common genus, the definition of which causes the greatest difficulty.
You will need
- Ability to distinguish endings from different parts of speech
Instruction
Highlight the endings of adjectives and verbs that agree with the desired word. Most often, this is enough to determine. Put the verb in the past tense, and take the noun with the adjective in the nominative case. The best friend has come, the best friend has come, the new one has risen. These are examples of adjective and verb endings in masculine, feminine, and neuter.
Determine if the word you are looking for denotes a profession or occupation. Most of these words are formally masculine. For example, the new doctor said (o), the new doctor said (o); He is an excellent specialist, she is an excellent specialist. Please note that the names of some professions do not have a male form kind. For example, the word "ballerina" has only a feminine form. kind.
Remember that words like "klutzy, fidget, bully, ignorant, greedy, clever" and the like belong to the common gender. These words give emotional coloring to both the words of the male and the female. kind, and name the occupation of these persons.
remember, that kind abbreviations have a case of particular complexity. For abbreviations formed by adding parts of a word, determine the gender by the main word: new savings bank, high-quality organizational work. In the case when a word by adding sounds or letters (PTU, RAS), clear rules for determining kind no.
Form the gender of indeclinable nouns borrowed from other languages according to the following rule. If a noun denotes an object, then it belongs to the neuter gender (coat, scarf). If it stands for , then it refers to the masculine gender (chimpanzee). If it names a geographical object, then it refers to the gender of most words of this type in language(Mississippi Women's kind because it's a river). Do not forget that in each such case there are exceptions. Consult reputable dictionaries if you are in any doubt.
Related videos
Abbreviation(Italian abbreviatura from Latin brevis - short) is a word consisting of the names of the initial letters or sounds of the lexical elements of the original phrase. The name of the term determines the way the abbreviations are formed by abbreviation (truncation of stems). When determining kind such complex abbreviated words, it is necessary to “decipher” it, i.e. lead to the original combination.
You will need
- - dictionary.
Instruction
Determine what type the analyzed . Traditionally, 3 types are distinguished: - letter type, i.e. composed of the alphabetic names of the letters of the words that form the original phrase (Russian Federation, Moscow Art Theater, ORT); - sound type, i.e. formed from the words included in the phrase (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN, Moscow Art Theater). Usually, sound abbreviations are formed when there are vowels inside it; - mixed type, i.e. composed partly from the names of initial letters, partly from sounds (Germany, CSKA).
Determine the original phrase from which the abbreviation is formed. If you have difficulty "deciphering" refer to dictionaries or other sources of information.
Determine the gender of the leading word. According to it, this grammatical category is fixed in the abbreviation. For example, hard currency is a freely convertible currency. Defined word "currency" feminine kind. So SLE is the same kind.
Remember that the gender of some initial abbreviations has changed over time and the peculiarities of their use in speech. If a compound word has acquired the ability to decline according to the declension of names, then it has acquired the form of a masculine kind. For example, a university is to study at a university. Initially, the word belonged to the middle gender, because. university -
Among the nouns ending in -а (-я), there are nouns with the meaning of a person, which can be classified either as masculine or feminine depending on gender: This master is a talented self-taught and This weaver is a talented self-taught. Such nouns belong to the so-called common gender. However, the meaning of the common gender is not singled out as an independent grammatical meaning. The gender of these nouns is determined depending on the specific use of them in speech. So, if words of the general gender are used to refer to males, they act as a masculine noun: He is such a fidget, this restless boy, ”the mother complained. If words of the general gender are used to refer to females, then they act as feminine nouns: What a naughty one you are! There is an alternative point of view - to consider that in the Russian language there are two egoza lexemes. The first lexeme is masculine, the second is feminine.
Common nouns include:
- nouns with the meaning of a person in -а (-я): grump, bully, fidget, ignoramus, touchy, miser, disheveled - most of these words serve as a means of expressive characterization;
- some borrowed nouns that characterize persons: vis-a-vis, protégés;
- proper names that call people (unofficial version): Valya, Zhenya, Sasha;
- foreign and Slavic surnames ending in a vowel: Morua, Hugo, Prokhorenko, Sidorenko;
- Slavic surnames ending in -s/ih: Sizykh, Dolgikh.
Many of these names do not have parallel feminine forms at all: associate professor, teacher, agronomist, foreman, candidate of science, etc. Some of them have a parallel feminine education, but are used to refer to the wife of a person of the corresponding profession or rank: professor, director, colonel etc. The same parallel formations can denote a female person by profession and occupation (although they are more often used with a contemptuous connotation). They are used only in colloquial, sometimes colloquial, styles of speech, cf .: doctor, doctor, agronomist, conductor, cashier, librarian, etc.
A few words denoting a profession have only feminine forms: manicurist, typist (working on a typewriter), ballerina. There are no masculine correlative words for these nouns. Instead of the words typist, ballerina, milkmaid, descriptive phrases are used to refer to males: an employee typing on a typewriter; ballet dancer; machine milking master, etc.
I have compiled a list of Russian words of the common gender, which I remember. These words (nouns ending on -a/-ya) can denote both masculine and feminine human beings. Your additions and corrections are welcome!
I undertook to remember Russian words of a common gender. These are nouns with the endings -a (ya), which serve as the names of both male and female persons (little crybaby - little crybaby, such a wretch - such a wretch). As a rule, these words have an expressive connotation (often disapproving) and are used in colloquial speech.
I have such a list. To help learners of Russian as a foreign language (RFL), I have accompanied them with definitions.
Additions and corrections are welcome! When borrowing material, please provide a link.
white hand- who is not accustomed to dirty work
big man- a tall man (see tall man)
thief- notorious, inveterate thief
vermin- who harms everyone, an unfriendly, unpleasant type (expletive)
reptile- nasty person (expletive)
upstart- a person who intervenes first before others in something, in order to earn approval, to curry favor with someone; a person who has not rightfully taken some sth. position, position
dirty- who does not keep himself or his house clean (cf. clean)
fool- fool
tall- a tall, lanky person
fidget- a mobile, restless person (more often about women, approvingly)
greedy (greedy-beef)- greedy person
infection- scoundrel, scoundrel (expletive word)
bully, bully- a pugnacious person who offends the weak
ringleader– active, enterprising person, the soul of the company
arrogant- who has a high opinion of himself, considers himself the smartest
sleeping- dormouse (see)
stutterer- a person who stutters (neutral word)
nerd- boring, boring person
sang- a singer who starts singing, picked up by the choir; (trans.) initiator, initiator
vicious- an angry person or someone who is constantly angry at everyone
cripple- a person who has lost any part of the body or the ability to own it, crippled, disabled (neutral word)
colleague- workmate, person of the same profession (neutral word)
antics- who grimace, behave pretentiously and coyly
revelry- who spends money in restaurants
gourmet– who loves sweets and delicacies
lefty- a person who uses his left hand better than his right (cf. right-handed) (neutral word). "Lefty" - a story by Nikolai Leskov (1881)
couch potato- a lazy person, a loafer who loves to lie, wallow (cf. sleepyhead)
liar- petty liar, liar
cutie, cutie- nice, likable, likable person
mymra- a dull and gloomy person.
klutz- impractical person
touchy- too sensitive person
dropout- who failed. “The half-educated magician” - song by A. Pugacheva (cf. self-taught)
fidget- an active person who loves to travel, he does not sit still
slut- dirty (see)
sad sack- someone who can do little, an armless person
nurse- crybaby (see)
glutton- who eats a lot, overeats
scribbler- who writes bad, deceitful texts, corrupt journalist
lick- flatterer (from the verb "suck up")
crybaby- who often cries (see roar)
why curious person (usually a child) who asks a lot of questions
right-handed- a person who owns his right hand better than his right, in contrast to the left-hander (see) (neutral word)
dupe- naive, gullible person, "loh"
drunkard- drinking too much alcoholic beverages (neutral word)
hard worker- who works hard (praise), a simple person "of the people"
rift, rift- Distracted, inattentive person. Comedy French films: Le Corniaud and Inspecteur la Bavure
confused (confused, Masha-confused)- who often lose things
muddler- disorganized person
roar- crybaby
self-taught- who learned on their own, without attending educational institutions (neutral word)
orphan- a child left without parents (neutral word)
sweet tooth- who likes sweets
dormouse- loves to sleep longer
dude– fan of Western fashion (in the 1950s)
quiet girl- a quiet, timid person
smart girl- smart, intelligent person (praise)
hanyga- beggar, drunkard
grabber- selfish acquirer (from the word "grab")
cunning- cunning
skinny- emaciated, frail person
neat- who cares too much about cleanliness
sneak- who sneaks, denounces (usually about children)
In my opinion, the following words are the most frequent and useful for memorizing RFL students: upstart, stutterer, bore, greedy, cripple, colleague, left-handed (right-handed), slob, glutton, crybaby, drunkard, hard worker, slob, self-taught, orphan, clever , grabber, sneak.
Funny riddle verses(from here). Slutty, slob, greedy?
In the house - dirt, black shirt
And his name is...
Nothing in the world
Petya will not share with you:
Not a cheesecake, not a toy,
Not a funny animal...
And the children shout to the boy:
"Oh and ... you, Petya!"
All year round we have losses:
Calendar - this week
Last month - ticket
This is the book and package.
The whole family is innocent
After all... it's me!
Common nouns also include invariable surnames (Makarenko, Hugo, etc.) and colloquial forms of some proper names (Sasha, Valya, Zhenya).
Words that name a person by profession, occupation (doctor, professor, architect, author, etc.) do not belong to common nouns. They are masculine nouns.
Therefore, the following words in -а (-я), apparently, should be considered masculine words:
bombed- illegal taxi driver ("bomb" - to engage in private transportation without registration)
bully- burglar thief; participant in the pogrom
threw- a swindler (cf. neologisms "throw", "scammer")
changed- who changes money, exchanges one currency for another
Words denoting feminine objects in the main meaning retain the feminine gender in a figurative meaning:
star- well-known, popular person
black grouse- a slow person (sleepy, lazy etc.). deaf t.- about a person who has not heard something or a deaf, hard of hearing person (disapprovingly)
bump (bump out of the blue)- an important, influential person (ironic)
UPD. Thanks to Gunnel Salminen for the addition (left-handed, right-handed, colleague, cripple)
Common nouns in Russian form a special group. Its definition is based on the grammatical uniqueness of words, which is based on the change of gender depending on the gender of the specified person.
Noun gender
In total, there are 4 genders for nouns in Russian gender, neuter, masculine and feminine. The last three are easy to determine by the end or semantic context. But what if the word can mean both male and female at once? Such a problem occurs with the words "bully", "cunning", "rogue", "unfortunate", "touchy", "sleep", "mediocrity", "subhuman", "hurry", "piggy", "bully", kind which may change.
Traditionally, it is considered that in the Russian language there are only three genders, they include masculine, feminine and neuter. To determine the gender of some common words, it was customary to refer to the context. The names of professions, for example, are divided into parallel names: seller-saleswoman, teacher-teacher, schoolgirl-schoolgirl, pilot-pilot, cook-cook, writer-writer, athlete-sportswoman, leader-leader. At the same time, in official documents, the masculine gender of these words is more often used for women. And there are examples of nouns of the general gender that are exclusively masculine: gynecologist, lawyer, linguist, philologist, correspondent, ambassador, academician, judge, toastmaster, surgeon, doctor, therapist, paramedic, master, courier, curator, appraiser, insurer, diplomat, politician, employee, specialist, worker. Now there is a tendency to attribute such words to the general gender, since they can be applied to both a man and a woman.
Controversy
Disputes about the recognition of the existence of a common genus have been going on since the 17th century. Then similar words were mentioned in the grammars of Zizania and Smotrytsky. Lomonosov singled out such nouns, pointing out their formal characteristics. Later researchers began to doubt their existence, defining such nouns as words with alternating gender, depending on what was meant.
So to this day, opinions are divided, some scientists consider nouns of a common gender in the Russian language to be separate homonyms of different genders, while the other recognizes them in a separate group.
Surnames
Some indeclinable surnames of foreign origin and Russian surnames in -o and -yh/ih can be added to the words of the general gender. Sagan, Depardieu, Renault, Rabelais, Dumas, Verdi, Maurois, Hugo, Defier, Michon, Tussauds, Picasso and others. All this among foreign surnames. Among the Slavic surnames of a common gender are often found: Tkachenko, Yurchenko, Nesterenko, Prokhorenko, Chernykh, Makarenko, Ravensky, Kucherenko, Dolgikh, Savchenko, Sedykh, Kutsykh and others.
Nationalities
The names of some nationalities are defined as words of a common gender. These include: Khanty, Mansi, Quechua, Komi, Gujarati, Hechzhe, Mari, Saami. The fact is that there are already "Mari" and "Mari", but the word "Mari" will be common to the entire nation or nationality.
According to the same principle, the names of breeds (Sivka, Okapi, Bulanka), as well as representatives of groups (vis-a-vis) are also included in the general genus.
Informal proper names
In addition to surnames, there is an interesting separate category of proper names related to the topic of the article. These are abbreviations for official names, with which there is often confusion during gender determination.
The name "Sasha" can belong to both Alexandra and Alexander, and the name "Valya" is called both the girl Valentina and the boy Valentina. Other such names include "Zhenya" from Evgeny and Evgenia, "Glory" from Yaroslav and Yaroslav, Vladislav and Vladislav, "Vasya" from Vasily and Vasilisa.
Evaluative, characterizing words
However, for the first time, the question of the existence of common nouns was raised because of evaluative words that affect the character or traits of a person. In direct speech, when using them, it can be more difficult to track the gender of the recipient of the remark, for example: "You're a badass!" Here the word "bully" can be addressed to both the female sex and the male. They can also include the words of the general gender "bully", "swindler", "clever", "well done", "tramp", "rigid", "crippled", "stinker", "dylda", "malyavka", " disheveled."
In fact, there are a lot of such evaluative words. They can be both positive and negative. At the same time, such words should not be confused with an assessment as a result of a metaphorical transfer, due to which they retain their original gender: crow, fox, rag, ulcer, beluga, goat, cow, deer, woodpecker, seal.
General gender words with negative and positive meanings include: bulldozer, hypocrite, reptile, thug, baby, child, baby, quiet, invisible, poor fellow, couch potato, dirty, tall, sweet tooth, clean, greedy, miser, chatterer, beast, star , idler, mumbling, arrogant, rogue, klutz, sly, asked, hard worker, hard worker, ignoramus, onlooker, drunkard, sweetie, cudgel, imagined, redneck, slob, dormouse, sneak, whim, lying, kopush, fidget, toastmaster, rubak , hanging.
An example of use is clearly shown in fiction: “A little son came to his father” (Mayakovsky), “There lived an artist Tube, a musician Guslya and other kids: Toropyzhka, Grumpy, Silent, Donut, Rasteryaika, two brothers - Avoska and Neboska. And the most famous among them was a baby named Dunno." (Nosov). Perhaps it is the works of Nikolai Nosov that will become a real collection of words with a common gender.
Least of all words in this group are occupied by neutral words, such as: right-handed, left-handed, colleague, namesake, orphan. The gender of such words is also common.
How to determine gender in a common gender?
The general gender of nouns in Russian is determined by the impossibility of a confident indication of the gender in the absence of pronouns and generic endings of adjectives. Words that can be classified as both masculine and feminine will be included in this group.
In order to determine the gender of a noun, the accompanying demonstrative pronouns "this, this, that, that" are most often used, adjective endings -th, -th / th. But if the name of the profession, position or rank is determined with the ending in the consonant "sergeant, doctor, doctor, director" and others, then the adjective can only be masculine, but the predicate is expressed feminine. "The doctor prescribed the drug" and "Attractive doctor came out of hospital", "The sergeant gave the order" and "The strict sergeant allowed me to rest", "This Marina Nikolaevna is an exemplary teacher!" and "The Exemplary Teacher Conducted an Open Lesson", "The Cheerful Puppeteer Conducted a Performance", and "The Old Master Sat on the Porch". The predicate does not have to show the gender, then the task of determining the gender becomes more complicated: "The teacher conducts the lesson", "The specialist makes the decision."
Variety of examples
Thanks to examples, it becomes clear that a wide variety of words can be found among common nouns, such as "daredevil", "bully", "bred", "forester", "old-timer", "tail", "six", "ignorant", "bore", "white-handed", "squishy", "loose", "messy", "smear". And other words. But they are all united by ambiguity in the definition of gender. Orphan, stylist, marketer, comrade, coordinator, curator, linguist, linguist, shirt, foreman, kid, judge, Kolobrodina, sly, razin, protégé, roar, sang, muff, bombed, dunce, stupid, toady, upstart, youngster, scarecrow, poor thing, cripple, charming, first-grader, senior-grader, eleven-year-old - all these nouns can be used in relation to both sexes.
The wide cultural distribution of common nouns in the Russian language is also interesting. For example, they were widely used in proverbs and sayings:
- A healthy man in food, but a cripple in work.
- For every dupe there is a deceiver.
- A reveler in his youth is modest in his old age.
- A drunkard is like a chicken, wherever he steps, he will peck there.
And in literature:
- "So a strange deal took place, after which the tramp and the millionaire parted, quite pleased with each other" (Green).
- "A good girl, an orphan alone" (Bazhenov).
- “Your cleanliness, as the doctors say, is sterile” (Dubov).
- "Hills! - What? - She recoiled" (Shargunov).
There are many such examples in the literature. Determining the common gender from the words listed in the exercise is one of the tasks in the Russian language lesson that is easy to deal with.