Masculine neuter feminine rule. What is the gender of nouns? How is it defined? Gender and concordant class of noun pronouns

A sign of a masculine, feminine or neuter gender of a noun is expressed primarily syntactically - by one form or another of the adjective (black cat, black mark, black coat), participle (broken nose, broken arm, broken tree), numeral (third lesson, third shift, third place), pronouns (every man, every woman, every Sunday), past tense and subjunctive verbs (son would/would come; daughter would/would come; the sun would/would set) combined with the given noun.

But along with this, the belonging of a noun to one or another gender in the overwhelming majority of cases is also determined morphologically - by the nature of the stem and endings in one or another type of declension.

1. The masculine gender includes:

• nouns with a basis on solid consonants and a zero ending in the nominative case of the singular, changing according to the second substantive declension: table, oak, bull, ruff, knife;
• most nouns with a base on soft consonants, including [j], changing according to the second substantive declension: horse, beast, bumblebee, rook, hero;
• inflected noun way;
• by value, masculine gender also includes nouns denoting males, with the ending -а (-я) (first substantive declension): servant, Misha, Borya; nouns with magnifying suffixes -ina, -ische, as well as with suffixes -ishka, -ishko, formed from the bases of masculine nouns: house - domina, house, house; naughty - naughty.

2. The feminine gender includes:

• the vast majority of nouns with the ending -а (-я) in the nominative singular, changing according to the first substantive declension: sister, wall, earth (a small part of nouns with stems in -а (-я) refers to the masculine and common gender: young man , slob);
• some of the nouns with a basis in soft consonants, except for “y”, changing according to the third substantive declension: shadow, doe, net, night.

3. The middle gender includes:

• nouns with the ending -о (-е), changing according to the second substantive declension: window, field.
• ten dissimilar nouns in -mya: name, time, tribe, seed, crown, udder, burden, flame, stirrup, banner.

There are a large number of indeclinable nouns of various genders that express their gender only syntactically. When determining the gender of such nouns, it must be taken into account that for animate nouns, the grammatical gender corresponds to the gender of the creature called: attache, missus. Inanimate nouns are usually neuter (depot, coat, stew, taxi, subway), exceptions: coffee, Hindi, Swahili and other language names (these are masculine nouns). The gender of indeclinable geographical names corresponds to the gender of the corresponding common noun: Tbilisi (city) - masculine, Ontario (lake) - neuter, Mississippi (river) - feminine.

The most characteristic morphological feature of a noun is the category of gender. All nouns, with a few exceptions, belong to one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter.

In addition, among the words ending in -а (-я), there are nouns with the meaning of a person, which can be assigned either to the masculine or to the feminine, depending on gender: This master is a talented self-taught and This weaver is a talented self-taught. These words belong to the so-called common gender (bully, touchy, slut, razinya, dormouse, crybaby, etc.).

Morphologically, the gender of nouns is determined by the nature of the stem and ending. Syntactically, the gender of a noun is determined by the form of the adjective agreed with it: green bush, green grass, green plant.

Masculine nouns include: all nouns with a stem in -i and a solid consonant (on -zh and -sh there can also be feminine words) with a zero ending in the nominative singular; nouns with a base in a soft consonant, as well as in -zh and -sh, having the ending -а (-я) in the genitive case of the singular; some animate nouns ending in -а (-я); nouns with the suffix -ushk-, -ishk-, -ish- and endings -я, -о, -е, formed from masculine nouns: our boy, a small vozishko; ... A great writer will come out of Gorky (Ch.); the words apprentice (derived from the word master), path also belong to the masculine gender.

Feminine nouns include: most of the words with the ending -а (-я) in the nominative singular; nouns with a stem in a soft consonant and in -zh, -sh, in which the ending in the genitive case of the singular is -i (an exception is the word way - masculine).

The nouns of the middle gender include: nouns with the ending -о (-е) in the nominative singular; ten words per -mya: name, time, tribe, banner, burden, seed, stirrup, crown, flame and udder; word child.

General nouns include nouns (with the meaning of a person) in -а (-я): grump, bully, fidget, ignoramus, touchy, miser, disheveled, etc. The gender of these nouns is determined depending on their specific use 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! Most of these words serve as a means of expressive characterization. They are mainly used in colloquial speech.

Words with formal masculine characteristics (names of persons by profession, position, occupation), which are now widely used also for naming females, should not be mixed with nouns of the general gender. These words did not become grammatically common words, but remained masculine words: the new judge Ivanova, the famous sculptor Mukhina, Nikolaeva-Tereshkova - a woman cosmonaut. Many of these words do not have parallel feminine forms at all: associate professor, teacher, agronomist, master, candidate of science, etc. Some words have a parallel feminine form, but are used to refer to the wife of a person of the corresponding profession or rank: professor, director, colonel and etc. The same parallel formations can designate a female person by profession and occupation (often used with a contemptuous connotation). They are used only in colloquial, and sometimes in colloquial styles of speech (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.

Nouns used only in the plural do not have a gender category (scissors, tongs). In determining the gender of some nouns (comparatively few), fluctuations are sometimes observed. So, individual nouns, usually used in the masculine form, are sometimes used in the feminine form: shoe - shoe (in common speech), rail - rail (in colloquial speech), banknote - banknote, gelatin - gelatin (in professional speech ) and others. For the present, masculine forms are more characteristic.

The gender category in individual words (usually of foreign origin) can change. For example, a number of words used in the modern general literary language as masculine nouns were previously used in the feminine form: black piano - black piano, green poplar - green poplar (see M.Yu. Lermontov: Behind the high poplar I see there window), a sanatorium - a sanatorium, etc. (see A.S. Novikov-Priboy: Fights with a storm on the high seas can correct anyone better than any sanatorium).

Some nouns in the modern general literary language are used as feminine nouns, while in other styles of speech they can be used in the masculine gender. Sometimes the masculine forms are not a stylistic parallel form, but are more or less obsolete. This includes, for example, such nouns as shoe - shoe, arabesque - arabesque, thick veil - thick veil, old corn - old corn, cataract - cataract, clearing - clearing, etc. Individual nouns can have parallel forms of feminine and masculine, semantically and stylistically indistinguishable: shutter - shutter, stack - stack, giraffe - giraffe. Finally, some indeclinable nouns, usually used in the modern language as neuter nouns, used to admit a masculine form (obsolete forms): fluffy boa - fluffy boa (see A.S. Pushkin: He is happy if she throws a fluffy boa on shoulder); my cocoa (see I.S. Turgenev: It's time for me to drink my cocoa), etc.

According to the existing rules, all indeclinable nouns of foreign origin, denoting inanimate objects, most often belong to the middle gender: communiqué, taxi, metro, cinema, sconce, muffler, cocoa, etc. Other genders: coffee (m. R.), sirocco ( m.), avenue (female), Gobi (female), kohlrabi (female), etc. Indeclinable animate nouns are, as a rule, masculine: kangaroo, chimpanzee, etc. d. However, if the word is used to name female animals, then it acts as a feminine noun: a kangaroo (chimpanzee) fed a cub. Indeclinable nouns denoting men are masculine: attache, rentier, dandy; denoting women - to the feminine: lady, madam, miss, etc.

The gender of indeclinable nouns, which are foreign geographical names (names of cities, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc.), is determined by correlating it with the gender of that common noun whose name is a proper name: green Batumi (city), stormy Mississippi (river ), distant Capri (island), modern Helsinki (city), etc. The gender of nouns, which are the names of newspapers, magazines, collections, etc., is also determined: "Humanite" (newspaper) issued a refutation; "Weltbühne" (magazine) published an article, and so on.

The gender category of nouns is represented by three types of CGs: masculine CGs, feminine CGs, and neuter CGs. Nouns whose grammatical gender is determined in context ( slob, crybaby), are called nouns of general gender (conditional term). In rare cases, when words have two gender forms (usually one of the forms is more common), they speak of a paired gender: keys - key, spasm - spasm, unt - unta, shutter - shutter and some others.

Words that are plural or only plural have no gender value.

Gender distribution of inflected nouns

Morphologically, the gender of nouns is determined by the nature of the stem and ending. An indicator of gender for case-inflected nouns can be suffixes ( circus performer - circus performer to and, Minsker - Minsker to a, hedgehog - hedgehog them ah, the cook is the cook them a), but the main indicator of gender is the ending.

To the masculinewords include: 1) having a zero ending in the nominative case of the singular: house, briefcase(in the genitive case, these words have the ending a: house - at home, Irtysh - Irtysh); 2) having the ending -а (-я) in the nominative case of the singular (these are animate nouns denoting males); 3) suffixes -isch-, -ishk-, -ushk-, -in- in words like shoe, nightingale, house,domina(words are formed from masculine nouns); 4) having in the nominative case of the singular the endings -oy, -y, -y (substantiated adjectives and participles of the type private, scientist); 5) word journeyman.

To the feminineinclude words that have endings in the nominative case of the singular: 1) -а (-я); 2) zero ending (in the genitive case - ending -and: joy - joy, Astrakhan - Astrakhan); 3) endings -th, -th (substantiated adjectives and participles): bathroom, dining room, laundry.

To the middle class relate : 1) words that have the endings -о (-е) in the nominative case of the singular; 2) nouns with -mya, 3) word child, 4) words that have the endings -oe, -ee in the nominative case of the singular (substantiated adjectives and participles): subject, cake, amphibious.

A group of common nounsmake up the words: 1) denoting a person by a characteristic feature or action (with endings -а (-я)): crabby, shorty, glutton, white hand; 2) truncated personal names: Valya, Zhenya, Lera; 3) unchangeable surnames: Chernykh, Sagan, Dumbazde, Ozheshko; 4) foreign words denoting persons of different sexes: counterpart, protégé, incognito.

This category does not include words that retain their grammatical gender regardless of the designated person. Thus, nouns denoting persons by profession are distributed by gender in accordance with the type of ending, regardless of the gender of the designated persons. Most nouns that name people by profession are masculine: doctor, lawyer, surgeon(but: manicurist, nanny, nurse).

Nouns denoting animals are also divided into genders according to the type of ending in the nominative case: squirrel, rook. Nouns in a figurative sense can refer to both females and males: snake, hat, mattress. The grammatical meaning of the gender of the noun remains unchanged.

Some words have a gender correlative pair: hedgehog - hedgehog, elephant - elephant, teacher - teacher. Sometimes a word correlative by gender has a reduced stylistic coloring ( doctor - doctor, director - headmistress) or takes on a different meaning ( machinist - typist, secretary - secretary).

It can be quite difficult to determine the belonging to one or another gender of some groups of nouns. It should be remembered that the words tulle, tar paper, aerosol, rail, shampoo are masculine, and vanilla, rosin, persalt, cochineal, corn- to the feminine.

The gender of inanimate complex nouns written with a hyphen is determined: first, by the first part, if both parts change: sofa bed(masculine); second, on the mutable part, if the other is immutable: beta radiation(neuter gender). Quite often, the gender is determined by the part that expresses a broader meaning: museum apartment(feminine).

Difficult to determine the gender can also be nouns that name some types of objects used in pairs. Only one form of gender (feminine) for nouns shoe, sandal, clip, boot.

It must be remembered that the gender of some nouns in Russian and Belarusian does not match: goose - masculine (in Russian) and feminine (in Belarusian), dog - feminine (in Russian) and masculine (in Belarusian).

Gender distribution of invariable nouns

1. Invariable common nouns distributed by gender as follows:

2. Immutable proper namesnames are distributed according to gender ( Irene- female, Nicolas- masculine), surnames with a vowel (except for unstressed a), as well as surnames with -s (-s) refer to words of a common gender ( Samoilo arrived, E.K. Korotkikh spoke; Ivan Gornovykh reported).

3. The genus of indeclinable geographical, administrative names, and also the names of printed publications are determined by the generic concept: sunny Batumi(city), wide Mississippi(river), yesterday's Times" (newspaper), "Figaro"(magazine) published.

4. In some cases, the same word is used in different generic forms depending on the lexical meaning: Mali(state) attached about to the resolution. Mali(the country) concluded a Contract.

Abbreviation gender distribution

The gender of indeclinable abbreviations is primarily dictated by the gender of the key word: Oktyabrsky ROVD(district department of internal affairs) - masculine, prestigious Moscow State University(Moscow State University) - masculine, APN(Academy of Pedagogical Sciences) - feminine.

Some abbreviations (usually inflected) take on the meaning of gender by phonetic appearance, regardless of the main word. So, inflected words belong to the masculine gender: university, registry office(registration of acts of civil status), MFA(Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and indeclinable word housing and communal services(Department of Housing and Utilities) housing and communal services(Department of Housing and Utilities).

Let us turn to the category of gender of nouns. You remember that in Russian the gender of nouns is determined on two grounds: by the end of the nominative case of the singular and by the meaning of the noun, namely, by the relation of persons and animals called by this noun to the natural sex. It is necessary to know what gender a particular noun belongs to in order to correctly change it in cases, to correctly combine it with other words in a sentence. That is why in dictionaries indications of gender are a mandatory characteristic of nouns.

It is customary to distinguish five groups of nouns according to their gender:

Masculine nouns;

Feminine nouns;

Nouns of the middle gender;

Common nouns ( crybaby, smart girl, sneak);

Nouns whose gender cannot be determined trousers, railings, pliers, jungle, yeast, blush, debate, holidays, dusk, the Alps).

To masculine include nouns ending in a solid consonant stem or -i (home, father, balance, bank, barter, credit, tea, land), all nouns ending in -tel (teacher, writer, switch, indicator), month names (January, february, april, june, july, september, october, november, december), borrowed nouns with stems in -l, -n, -r (ensemble, shampoo, piano, vestibule, calendar).

To feminine include nouns ending in -а, -я (wife, earth, idea, game, computer science, migration, firm, function), nouns ending in a soft consonant stem (life, steel, night), as well as nouns ending in a hard hissing (youth, lies, rye, gouache, retouching, nonsense, falseness, wilderness).

To neuter include nouns ending in -o, -e (window, business, field, bankruptcy, godlessness, good, wealth, department, religion, application, lending, distribution), as well as all nouns ending in -mya (time, crown, burden, stirrup , udder, name, banner, flame, tribe, seed) and the noun child.

Exception make up nouns with the ending -a, -я and nouns with a zero ending in a soft consonant, which are masculine, as they denote males: uncle, young man, Muscovite, cabin boy, bear. The noun apprentice also belongs to the masculine gender.

So, in modern Russian, three kinds of nouns are traditionally distinguished: male (envelope, law), female (article, bench) and middle (punishment, crime). As a rule, the initial form of the word already gives an idea of ​​its generic affiliation. However, in some cases, the definition of the gender of nouns is difficult.

1. Frequent errors in the use of indeclinable nouns (as a rule, borrowed from other languages), in combination with adjectives or verbs of the past tense, due to incorrect combination of word forms by gender. Attempts to change such words lead to blunders like: He came back for a coat. The gender of such words cannot be determined by the ending, it is determined by the meaning of the word, associated in most cases with the concept of animateness / inanimateness. Most inanimate indeclinable nouns are neuter (foyer, cinema, coat, highway, khaki, pince-nez, boucle). Neuter gender have inanimate nouns denoting objects (highway, cinema, coat). The exceptions are the words coffee (m.r.), Hindi, Swahili (names of languages ​​- m.r.), avenue (street - f.r.). To feminine include animate nouns denoting females (madame, miss, lady). To masculine relate:

Animated nouns denoting males (dandy);

Animated nouns with the meaning of a position, rank or profession traditionally associated with male labor (entertainer, attache, referee);

Nouns that are the names of animals and are used without indicating their gender (kangaroo, chow-chow).

Animated indeclinable nouns can be used both as masculine words and as feminine words, depending on what gender they denote, i.e. they correspond to the sex of a real person or animal. Wed: magnificent maestro; my counterpart is my counterpart; your protégé is your protégé; bright cockatoo - bright cockatoo.

There are exceptions to this general rule:

a) indeclinable nouns that have a generic name in Russian correspond to the gender of the latter: salami - well. R. (sausage), kohlrabi - w. R. (cabbage);

b) sometimes the gender of an indeclinable noun is determined by the gender of the word, which is common and declinable for such nouns: avenue is defined as a feminine noun because it corresponds to the inflected feminine noun street, slang- with a synonymous masculine noun jargon, suluguni- with a masculine noun (cheese), aloe- m.r. (flower), Hindi- m.r. (language), Capri- m.r. (Island), Mississippi- well. R. (river), Tbilisi- m.r. (city);

c) the noun coffee is masculine, although recently it has been allowed to use it as a neuter noun in colloquial speech: delicious coffee and delicious coffee, one coffee and one coffee;

d) the names of the letters refer to words of the middle gender: Russian A, capital B; names of sounds - neuter or masculine: unstressed A - unstressed A; Note names are neuter: long mi;

2. If indeclinable nouns call living beings, their gender depends on the gender of the latter ( young - young kangaroo, Durnovo reported - reported, beautiful - beautiful counterpart).

3. Some nouns ending in -а/-я are used in relation to both male and female persons and, as a rule, have an evaluative character. Such nouns are words generic

(slob, clever, crybaby, bully, clever, good fellow, greedy, glutton, dormouse, sneak).

General nouns denoting males agree with the masculine forms of adjectives, pronouns, and past tense or subjunctive verbs, and nouns denoting females agree with the corresponding feminine forms. Wed: He is so smart! She is so smart! My colleague carefully read the documents. My colleague carefully read the documents.

4. Considerable difficulties arise in the use of nouns denoting persons by occupation or profession. Nouns that call a person by profession or position are used in the masculine gender, regardless of the gender of the person in question ( Vasilyeva is a very young professor). Masculine nouns denoting male and female persons of the type doctor, engineer, technologist, banker, assistant, manager, businessman, as a rule, agree with adjectives in the masculine form (i.e., at the end), and with verbs - in the masculine or feminine form, depending on whether the person belongs to the male or female sex (i.e., by meaning). For example: Experienced lawyer Ivanova won the process. - Experienced lawyer Ivanov won the process; The local doctor Smirnova visited the patient. - The local doctor Smirnov visited the patient. In some cases, the language has parallel forms ( orderly - nurse, weaver - weaver). Nouns do not have gender oppositions seamstress, laundress, manicurist, machinist, typist. Type forms conductor, cashier, director, cook have a colloquial-spatial coloring.

5. Some nouns are characterized by generic variants. For example, giraffe and giraffe, jackboot and jackboot. Often only one option is recommended as stylistically neutral ( hall - hall (obsolete), hall (simple), gelatin - gelatin (prof.).

6. Nouns that are used only in the plural form have no gender ( sleigh, scissors, gates, pants, glasses).

7. Gender of complex nouns of the type theatre-studio, novel-newspaper is determined by the generic feature of that component, which has a great informative value.

8. The gender of indeclinable geographical names correlates with the gender of the corresponding common noun: Sochi, Tbilisi(city

- m.r.), Ontario(lake - cf.), Mississippi(river - f.r.).

9. The gender of indeclinable abbreviations is determined by the gender of the main word of the phrase ( SGLA - academy - female, NCFU - university - m.d.). However, if there are no associations of the abbreviation with generating words in the minds of people, it receives a gender, like an ordinary word, according to a formal indicator and belongs to the masculine gender in case of a zero ending ( ZhEK, university, although “office”, “institution”), to the middle gender, if the ending is -o ( RONO, although "department").

10. In Russian, nouns are actively used, which are formed as a result of the addition of two words. Such compound nouns can be animate or inanimate ( governor general, woman astronaut, conference room). In animate nouns, the gender is determined by the word indicating the gender of the person ( female astronaut- well. R.; miracle hero- m. R.). For inanimate nouns, the gender is determined by the gender of the first word ( museum-apartment- m.r.; dressing gown- cf. R.; amphibious aircraft- m.r.; boarding school- well. R.). If a compound noun has an indeclinable noun in its composition, then the gender is determined by the gender of the inflected word ( cafe-dining room- well. R.; comedy buff- well. R.; taxi car- m. R.).

11. Gender of nouns formed with suffixes -seek-, -chic-, is determined by the gender of the noun from which these nouns are derived ( voice - voice: m.r.; oar - oar: cf. R.; snake - snakes: female; brother - brother: m.r.; letter - letter: cf. R; newspaper - newspaper: f.r.).

What is a gender in relation to the Russian language, how many genders are in the Russian language and which are distinguished?

Schoolchildren begin to get acquainted with this category in the primary grades, gradually deepening and consolidating their knowledge. In the fifth grade, information about the genus is replenished and fixed on more complex material.

How many genders are in Russian?

The following system is presented in Russian:

• Feminine.
• Male gender.
• Neuter gender.
• Common gender.

The gender of words used only in the plural is not determined.

How many genders does a noun have in Russian?

To determine the gender of a noun, we ask a semantic question to this word: is it mine? She is mine? is it mine?

As can be seen from the table, gender is determined only for nouns in the singular. Nouns used only in the plural (trousers, glasses, sleigh) are outside the category of gender.

When determining the gender of nouns, schoolchildren often find it difficult to use words like "knowledgeable", "clever", "fidget" and the like. For example: he was a big fidget and she was a big fidget. Are these words feminine or masculine? This is where the question posed in the title arises: how many genders are there in the Russian language? Scientists have two points of view on this matter: some attribute them to male or female, depending on the context, others single out such words in a special gender - general.

Indeclinable foreign nouns also cause difficulties. In spelling, they resemble words belonging to the middle gender. Indeed, most of them belong to this genus, but there are (let's say so) exceptions to the rule.

So, according to the literary norm, the noun "coffee" refers to the masculine gender. It would be wrong to say "my coffee". This is a mistake, the correct option is "my coffee".

The noun "euro", by analogy with other names of monetary units, refers to the masculine gender. By the same principle, the nouns "suluguni", "sirocco", "penalty" are masculine. Based on the same analogy, the nouns "avenue", "salami", "kohlrabi" are feminine.

If you have any doubts about the gender of a noun, then you should refer to the dictionaries of the Russian language.

How to determine the gender of an adjective?

Unlike a noun, for which the category of gender is invariable, for an adjective it is an inflected category and is determined depending on the context. The rule by which the gender of this part of speech is determined is as follows: the gender of the adjective is determined by the word being defined, that is, by the noun.

For example:

• The girl was wearing a beautiful (cf. R.) dress. ("Dress" - it is mine, therefore - it is a neuter gender, which means that the adjective "beautiful" refers to the neuter gender).
• He was a handsome (m.r.) man. The street is beautiful (female).

There are also indeclinable adjectives. For example: khaki trousers.

Now you know the answer to the question of how many genders there are in Russian. We also analyzed their definition with examples. It is very important to be able to determine the gender of a noun or adjective - this will help to avoid grammatical errors.