Like many languages, all Russian nouns have a gender: either feminine, masculine, or neuter.
| Masculine nouns end in hard consonants or й. | Feminine nouns end in the letters а or я. | Neuter nouns end in the letters о or е. | A soft sign (ь) can be either masculine or feminine: |
|---|---|---|---|
| сахарsugar | машинаcar | небоsky | король masculineking |
| чайtea | земляworld | движениеmovement | медведь femininebear |
There are a few tricks to figuring out whether a -ь noun is masculine or feminine, but they'll mostly have to be memorized. Don't worry, this is easier than it sounds!
Nouns can also be plural:
| Add ы to a consonant. | Replace а with ы. | Replace о with а. | Replace ь with и. |
|---|---|---|---|
| сахарыsugars | машиныcars | небаskies | короли masculinekings |
| Replace й with и. | Replace я with и. | Replace е with я. | медведи femininebears |
| чаиteas | землиworlds | движенияmovements |
Russian has six grammatical cases, each used to express different concepts. This lesson explains nouns in the nominative case, which is the default case in Russian; it is sometimes called the dictionary case as this is the form used to define Russian words in dictionaries.