Neuter gender in the Russian language. Gender and sex of animals

Genus - grammatical category, characteristic different parts speech in the singular and consisting in the distribution of words into three classes, traditionally correlated with gender characteristics or their absence.

There are three types of nouns in the Russian language:

Male (he) Masculine nouns in the singular nominative case have endings -and I, And zero (father, uncle, knife, table, hawk).

Female (she) Feminine nouns in the singular nominative case have the endings - and I, And zero (wife, nanny, night, glory, desert).

Middle (it) Neuter nouns in the singular nominative case have endings -o, -e (swamp, gold, sun, lake, jam).

There is also a class of words general kind, which, depending on the context, can be used in both masculine and feminine forms ( boring, sissy, crybaby, smart, greedy).

Determining the gender of nouns

To determine the feminine gender of inanimate nouns, look at the ending. For animate nouns, the defining feature is that they belong to female creatures ( girl, cat). In order not to confuse the endings of feminine and masculine nouns, you need to substitute the pronoun “she, mine” to check. For example, a song (she, mine).

The masculine gender of nouns is also determined by the ending of the initial form. In order not to confuse the gender of nouns ending in soft sign, also substitute the pronoun “he, my” to check ( stump, day).

Neuter nouns are determined by the endings of the initial form and by substituting the pronouns “it, mine” ( field, window). Please note that the group of differently inflected nouns ending in the combination -mya also belongs to the neuter gender ( tribe, seed etc.). Among neuter nouns there are almost no animate ones; their number is very small ( child, creature, animal).

Among the nouns there are several special groups, the determination of the genus in which is difficult. These include common nouns, as well as indeclinable and compound words.

Correlate the meanings of common nouns with their belonging to animate objects of the female or male gender. For example, slut girl(feminine gender), arrogant boy(masculine). Common nouns include those that denote qualities of people ( glutton, ignoramus, crybaby) or the name of persons by position, profession, occupation ( architect Petrov - architect Petrov).

It is necessary to take into account that the gender of indeclinable nouns is associated with their animateness/inanimateness, specific/generic concept. For animate indeclinable nouns, determine gender by gender (Monsieur, Miss). Nouns that give names to animals and birds are masculine (pony, kangaroo, cockatoo). Inanimate words are usually neuter ( coat, muffler). Exceptions are words whose gender is determined by association with generic names: kohlrabi - cabbage(feminine gender), Hindi - language(masculine), etc.

In order to determine the gender of indeclinable proper nouns denoting geographical names, it is necessary to select a generic concept ( lake, city, river, desert etc.). For example, city ​​of Rio de Janeiro(masculine) Gobi Desert(feminine gender).

The gender of abbreviations is determined by the gender of the leading word of the “deciphered” phrase: UN - United Nations, leading word “organization” (feminine gender).

See also:

We suggest taking tests online:

Instructions

When determining the feminine gender of inanimate nouns, keep in mind that they have singular endings -a, -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). To avoid confusing the endings of feminine and masculine nouns, substitute the pronouns “she, mine” to check. For example, a song (she, mine).

Determine the masculine gender of nouns by the ending of the form: zero for words ending with a consonant (house, table), -a, -ya - for animate nouns, male creatures (uncle, Seryozha). In order not to confuse the gender of nouns ending in a soft sign, also substitute the pronoun “he, my” (stump, day) to check.

Determine neuter nouns by the endings of the initial form -о, -е and by substituting the pronouns “it, mine” (field, window). Please note that the group of indeclinable nouns ending in the combination -mya also belongs to the neuter gender (tribe, seed, etc.). Among neuter nouns there are almost no animate ones, their number is very small (child, creature, animal).

Among nouns, there are several special groups, the gender of which is difficult. These include common nouns, indeclinables and compound words.
Correlate the meanings of common nouns with their belonging to female or male objects. For example, a girl (feminine), an arrogant boy (masculine). General nouns include those that denote the qualities of people (glutton, ignorant, crybaby) or the names of persons by profession, position, occupation (Ivanov - architect Ivanov).

Keep in mind that the gender of indeclinable nouns is related to their animate/inanimate nature, specific/generic concept. For animate indeclinable nouns, determine gender by gender (Monsieur, Miss). Nouns that give names to animals and birds are masculine (pony, kangaroo, cockatoo). Inanimate ones usually belong to the neuter gender ( , 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).

Determine the gender of complex abbreviated words (abbreviations) by the gender of the leading word of the “deciphered” phrase: UN – United Nations, leading word “organization” (feminine gender).

note

Some nouns have variant gender forms. Moreover, some of them are equal in rights (aviary - aviary, banknote - banknote), and the rest have stylistic marks: hall - hall (obsolete form), giraffe - giraffe (obsolete form).

Helpful advice

For nouns that are used only in the form plural, the category of the genus is not defined (whitewash, vice, everyday life).

Related article

Sources:

• Russian language genders

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 and neuter.

Instructions

Determine the gender of a noun by its ending or final consonant. The masculine gender includes words ending with a consonant and ending with –y. For example, a house, a loaf. TO feminine include nouns ending in –a, -ya, -iya. For example, cousin, . The neuter gender includes nouns ending in -о, -е, -и. For example, a window, a dress.

See if this noun is an exception. These include nouns ending in -ь. Such nouns can be either feminine or masculine. Thus, the dictionary is masculine, and the word notebook is feminine.

Pay attention to the gender of animate nouns. These are nouns that mean living things. Such words are either feminine or masculine. Exceptions are children, who are neuter. For animate nouns, determine gender either by the natural gender or animal, or by the ending of the noun. Elephant is a masculine noun and monkey is a feminine noun.

Correctly determine the gender of nouns denoting professions. They are masculine and feminine. Moreover, most nouns denoting professions are masculine: doctor, engineer, .

Special attention Pay attention to the gender of borrowed nouns. Nouns in a foreign language often have -i, -u, -yu, which are atypical for the Russian language. Such nouns do not change either by number or by case. The masculine gender includes names of cities and islands. Refers to the feminine gender female names and surnames, names of rivers and names of newspapers. The neuter gender includes the names of inanimate objects.

note

Nouns ending in consonant and -y are always masculine.

Most feminine nouns of foreign origin 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 gender in Russian

Definition sort of in Russian language is one of the most common tasks for people learning this language. In Russian language there are three sort of– male, female and average. In addition, there is a general genus, the definition of which causes the greatest difficulty.

You will need

• Ability to identify endings in different parts of speech

Instructions

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 and adjective in the nominative case. The best friend has come, the best friend came, a new one has risen. These are examples of adjective and verb endings in the masculine, feminine and neuter gender.

Determine whether the word you are looking for denotes a profession or type of activity. 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 some profession names do not have a masculine form sort of. For example, the word "ballerina" has only a feminine form sort of.

Remember that words like “klutz, fidget, bully, ignorant, greedy, smart” and the like refer to the general gender. These words give an emotional connotation to both masculine and feminine words. sort of, and name the occupation of these persons.

remember, that sort of Abbreviations are a particularly complicated case. For abbreviations formed by adding parts of a word, determine the gender by the main word: new Sberbank, high-quality organizational work. In the case when a word by adding sounds or letters (PTU, RAS), clear rules for determining sort of No.

Form the gender of indeclinable nouns borrowed from other languages, according to next rule. If a noun denotes an object, then it belongs to the neuter gender (coat, muffler). If it means , then it is masculine (chimpanzee). If it names a geographical feature, it is the gender of most words of this type in language(Mississippi Women's sort of because it's a river). Do not forget that in each such case there are exceptions. Consult reputable dictionaries if any are in doubt.

Video on the topic

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 abbreviations are formed by abbreviation (truncation of stems). When determining sort of such complex abbreviated words need to be “deciphered”, i.e. lead to the original combination.

You will need

• - Dictionary.

Instructions

Determine what type the analyzed one belongs to. Traditionally, there are 3 types: - letter type, i.e. made up of alphabetical names letters of words forming the original phrase (RF, MHT, ORT); - sound type, i.e. formed from words included in the phrase (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN, Moscow Art Theater). Usually, sound abbreviations are formed when there are vowel sounds inside it;- mixed type, i.e. composed partly from the names of the initial letters, partly from sounds (Germany, CSKA).

Determine the original phrase from which the abbreviation is derived. If you have difficulty deciphering, refer to dictionaries or other sources of information.

Determine the gender of the leading word. This grammatical category is assigned to the abbreviation. For example, hard currency is a freely convertible currency. Defined word "currency" of the feminine sort of. This means that SLE is the same sort of.

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 sort of. For example, university - study at a university. Initially, the word belonged to the neuter gender, because university –

The main grammatical feature that is inherent in almost every part of speech is the category of gender. How many genders do nouns have and how to correctly determine this category for this part of speech? You will find answers to these and other questions in the article.

What is the gender of nouns?

Category of gender of nouns in Russian– a grammatical sign indicating the gender (gender) of the object (living creature, phenomenon) called by the noun or its absence. Gender is a permanent grammatical feature of nouns and is studied in the 6th grade.

Features of the category of gender of nouns

There are three types of nouns in the Russian language:

• Male (he). Masculine nouns in the singular I. p. have the endings -a, -я, and zero.

  Examples of masculine nouns: dad, uncle, knife, table, hawk.

• Female (she). Feminine nouns in the singular I. p. have the endings -a, -я, and zero.

  Examples of feminine nouns: wife, nanny, night, glory, desert.

• Average (it). Neuter nouns in the singular I. p. have endings -о, -е.

  Examples of neuter nouns: swamp, gold, sun, lake, jam.

There is also a class of words, the so-called general gender, which, depending on the context, can be used in both masculine and feminine genders

(boring, sissy, crybaby, smart, greedy).

TOP 5 articleswho are reading along with this

How to determine the gender of a noun?

For animate nouns, the gender coincides with the gender of a living creature, a person (father, interlocutor - m.r., girlfriend, gossip - f.r.).

For all nouns, gender can be determined by grammatical form an adjective that agrees with a noun:

• Masculine whose? Which? ( White snow, good advice);
• Feminine. Nouns agree with adjectives that answer questions - whose? which? ( latest newspaper, funny friend);
• Neuter gender. Nouns agree with adjectives that answer questions - whose? which? (green field, tall building).

§1.1. Gender of nouns

Gender of inflected nouns

Each noun in Russian belongs to one of three genders: table, sparrow(masculine) pen, notebook(feminine) window, field(middle gender).

How do we determine and express the gender of a noun?

The gender of a noun (except for its case ending) is indicated by:

a) adjective forms: greatOuch table, redand I pen, wideoh window;

b) verb forms: boy cheatl book; girl studiedA language.

It is difficult to determine the gender of many words. These include nouns:

a) masculine: roofing felt, tulle, boot, report card, curtain, comment, correction, vegetable, shoulder strap, rail, piano, sanatorium, dispensary, hall, slang;

b) feminine: parcel, sideburn, shoe, slipper, sheet, callus, clearing, price;

c) neuter: towel, jam, stuffed animal, tentacle.

Remember these words! Using them in any other way is a gross violation of the norm!

Bigeneric forms

Is the gender of a noun always determined unambiguously? No! For some names there are bigeneric forms. This is explained:

a) tradition: aviary - aviaryA , cuff - cuffA , banknotes - banknotesA ;

b) the existence of different styles of speech, in particular colloquial and scientific (professional terminology): dahlia(colloquial speech) – dahliaA (nerd term), keys(technical term) – keysA (musical term).

These examples show that the problem of determining the gender of nouns is not as simple as it seems!

Gender of indeclinable nouns

An even greater difficulty is the question of determining the gender of indeclinable names ( coffee, ecu, kangaroo, flamingo, salami). Its solution is closely related to everyday speech practice. How to say: strong coffee or strong coffee? scotch whiskey or Scotch whiskey?

To determine the gender of indeclinable names, you need to know the following rule:

Inanimate names (objects) belong to the neuter gender: strongoh whiskey, ironoh alibi, goldoh necklace, redoh cap, briefoh resume, freshher meringue

Exceptions : a) masculine: coffee, penalty, ecu; b) feminine: kohlrabi, salami, avenue. Examples of phrases: blackth coffee, clearlyth penalty, Finnishand I salami, wideand I Avenue.

However, it should be remembered that processes often occur in a living language that violate (change) book-established norms. Yes, word coffee according to the rule, refers to the masculine gender (form in the 19th century - coffee), but in colloquial speech today it is also used in the neuter form. Both forms are considered acceptable: Give me please,one coffee (one coffee).

All animate names (persons) belong to one gender or another depending on the gender of the person:

a) masculine: militaryth attache, talentedth maestro, stingyOuch rentier, cheerfulth entertainer;

b) feminine: youngand I miss, oldand I madam, unknownand I lady;

c) variants of the genus: my protégé -my protégé, our incognito –our incognita.

Gender and sex of animals

How to designate the gender and gender of animals?

Towards inclined noun, this problem can be solved in different ways. One solution comes down to replacing the existing masculine noun with a feminine noun of a different root: bull - cow, ram - sheep, rooster - chicken. But there are a number of words that do not indicate the gender of the animals they denote at all: cat, fox, shark, monkey or ant, raccoon, parrot, badger. How to indicate the sex of animals in this case? You probably can’t answer this question unequivocally (this is cat, And fox, On the one side; ant, raccoon, badger- with another).

How to designate gender unyielding nouns that name animals? Such animal names include:

a) to the masculine gender: smallth pony, manualOuch kangaroo, pinkth flamingo, wildth dingo;

b) to the feminine gender only when denoting a female animal: kangaroo carriedA baby in pouch; brought out the cockatooA chicks.

Of course, the gender of indeclinable names here is indicated only by adjectives and verbs adjacent to them. The names themselves change and form pairs (as elephant - she-elephant) are not capable.

Gender of nouns denoting professions, positions

We encounter the need to express the gender of a noun when naming people by their profession or position: technician, judge, lawyer, engineer etc. Difficulties arise primarily when these names refer to women. To determine the gender of nouns in this group, the following rules exist.

1. The names themselves: technician, judge, lawyer, engineer, doctor, geologist, associate professor, professor, rector etc. – retain the masculine form: rector Gryaznov, director Petrov, doctor Ivanova.

2. What about the forms on -Ha And - sha? Most of these forms: doctor, director, secretary, hairdresser, elevator operator, librarian– are not normative and are classified as colloquial.

3. There are literary paired forms (masculine and feminine) for a number of names, and they are actively used in speech:

In general, there are quite a lot of suffixes in the Russian language that can transform a “male” name of a person into a name of a female person. This and -k(a): student - female student, And -sh(a): hero of the day - hero of the day, And -in(i): count - countess, And -ess: poet - poetess, and a null suffix: spouse - spouse. The difficulty is that these suffixes are added out of order, and therefore the formation of words with the meaning “female person” does not fit into clear rules.

But in official business style (official documents), preference is always given to masculine forms: laboratory assistant Petrova was appointed to the position on 01.0.2003.(Also: salesman Belova,correspondent Ivanova).

What gender does the adjective get when given a name? director or engineer? The adjective (and pronoun) with a noun of this group takes the masculine form: mainth engineer Kruglova,our judge Terekhova, districtsth doctor Gorina, scientificth head of Somov,my Director Lazarev. But the verb of the noun of the group under consideration is used in the feminine gender: Petrov's secretary issuedA certificate Krymov's accountant signedA statement. Rector Gryaznov concludedA agreement.

Thus, the syntax of a sentence containing the names of the group “profession - position” may look like this: My supervisor (Somova) made comments; Our commercial director (Potapova) signed the documents; My local doctor (Gorina) opened the newsletter.

This is interesting!

The need to indicate that it is a woman who holds a certain position or has a certain profession reflects the social order that life has placed on language. Indeed, in the 19th century. Most positions and specialties belonged exclusively to men. In such a situation, one word, usually masculine, was enough to identify the corresponding person. (And when Famusov - the hero of Griboyedov's comedy "Woe from Wit" - intends to " at a widow's, at a doctor's, to baptize", That we're talking about about the widow of a doctor, and not about a woman who is a doctor by profession.) But when in the 20th century. women began to actively occupy those positions, obtain those specialties that were previously exclusively male, and the need arose for women in such positions or with such specialties to be called in a special way. So the language mobilized all its resources for this: 1) in the form of complex words ( female director, female secretary, 2) in the form of endings of agreed words ( the secretary saidA , our dispatcher saidA ) and, of course, 3) in the form of suffixes ( startprostrate A).

The use of suffixes often led to a lack of distinction between nouns designating women by the position (or profession) of their husband and by their own position (or profession). Today words doctor, engineer, professor have passed into the category of vernacular and are more often used to refer to wives.

Gender of abbreviated nouns

In the Russian language, abbreviations are widely used - shortened letter names. They are read either

a) by letter: FA, MSU, UN, IMF, FSB;

b) in full syllable: TASS, Moscow Art Theater, CMEA, MFA.

How to determine the gender of an abbreviation? The gender of abbreviations is determined by the gender of the main (leading) word:

MSU Ž Moscow Stateuniversity - husband. genus;

FA Ž Financialacademy – female genus;

UN Ž Organization united nations– female genus;

ORT Ž All-RussianTV - Wed genus.

Syntactically, the gender of an abbreviation is expressed by the form of the verb: FA acceptedA students(academy); IMF allocatedl facilities(fund); ORT broadcastO last news(TV).

Exception abbreviations

Some abbreviations, when used for a long time, received a gender form not according to the gender of the main word, but according to their external appearance, i.e. abbreviations ending in a consonant became masculine. This happened with the following abbreviations, which can be considered exceptions to the rule:

university- husband. genus: The university accepted students(although according to the rule: university higher education institution Wed genus);

Housing office- husband. genus: Housing office gathered residents(although according to the rule: Housing office housing maintenance office wives genus);

HAC- husband. genus: The Higher Attestation Commission approved this candidacy(although according to the rule: HAC Higher Attestation Commission wives genus).

Variant abbreviations

The following forms are currently being considered as options:

TASS(agency) reported / TASS reported(“TASS is authorized to report” is the title of the feature film)

UNESCO(organization) arose / UNESCO arose.

Gender of media names

The names of mass media (newspapers and magazines), like any other names, can be:

1) inflected ("Izvestia", in "Izvestia");

2) inflexible ("Moscow News" [MoscowNews]).

Syntactically gender and number inclined The names of this group are expressed in the verb form: "Kommersant" publishedl article; "Moskovsky Komsomolets" disprovedG data information; "Moskovskaya Pravda" publishedA

General nouns in Russian form a special group. Its definition is based on the grammatical uniqueness of words, which is based on a change in gender depending on the gender of the specified person.

Gender of nouns

In total, there are 4 genders for nouns in the Russian language: common gender, neuter, masculine and feminine. The last three are easy to determine by the ending or semantic context. But what to do if the word can mean both male and female? This problem occurs with the words “bully”, “cunning”, “rogue”, “wretch”, “touchy”, “sleepy”, “mediocre”, “inhuman”, “hurry”, “piggy”, “bully”, etc. which may change.

It is traditionally believed that there are only three genders in the Russian language, they include masculine, feminine and neuter. To determine the gender of some common words, it has been customary to look to the context. The names of professions, for example, are divided into parallel names: saleswoman-saleswoman, teacher-teacher, schoolboy-schoolgirl, pilot-pilot, cook-cook, writer-writer, athlete-athlete, leader-leader. At the same time, in official documents the masculine gender of these words is more often used to refer to women. And there are also those designated exclusively masculine examples of common nouns: gynecologist, lawyer, linguist, philologist, correspondent, ambassador, academician, judge, toastmaster, surgeon, doctor, therapist, paramedic, foreman, courier, curator, appraiser, insurer, diplomat, politician, employee, specialist, worker . Now there is a tendency to classify such words as general gender, since they can be applied to both men and women.

Ambiguity of opinions

Disputes about recognizing the existence of a common genus have been going on since the 17th century. Then similar words were mentioned in the grammars of Zizaniy 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 implied.

So to this day, opinions are divided; some scientists consider common nouns in the Russian language to be separate homonym words different kinds, and the other recognizes them in a separate group.

Surnames

Some indeclinable surnames of foreign origin and Russian surnames with -о and -ы/х can be classified as words of general gender. Sagan, Depardieu, Reno, Rabelais, Dumas, Verdi, Maurois, Hugo, Defieux, Michon, Tussaud, Picasso and others. These are all examples of common gender nouns among foreign surnames. Among the Slavic surnames of the common family, the following are often found: Tkachenko, Yurchenko, Nesterenko, Prokhorenko, Chernykh, Makarenko, Ravenskikh, Kucherenko, Dolgikh, Savchenko, Sedykh, Kutsykh and others.

Nationalities

The names of some nationalities are defined as words of a general gender. These include: Khanty, Mansi, Quechua, Komi, Gujarati, Hezhe, Mari, Sami. The fact is that “Mari” and “Mari” already exist, 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 that relate to the topic of the article. These are abbreviations for official names, which often cause confusion during gender determination.

The name "Sasha" can belong to both Alexandra and Alexander, and the name "Valya" is used to call both the girl Valentina and the boy Valentin. Other such names include “Zhenya” from Evgeniy and Evgeniya, “Slava” from Yaroslav and Yaroslava, Vladislav and Vladislava, “Vasya” from Vasily and Vasilisa.

Evaluative, characterizing words

However, for the first time about the existence common nouns The question arose because of evaluative words affecting 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 are a bully!” Here the word "bully" can be addressed to both the female and male genders. These also include words of the general kind “bully”, “rogue”, “clever”, “well done”, “tramp”, “egoza”, “cripple”, “stinker”, “big”, “little fellow”, “ disheveled."

In fact, there are a lot of similar evaluative words. They can have both positive and negative meaning. However, such words should not be confused with an assessment as a result of metaphorical transfer, due to which they retain the original gender: crow, fox, rag, ulcer, beluga, goat, cow, deer, woodpecker, seal.

To words of general gender with negative and positive value include: idiot, bigot, reptile, thug, baby, child, baby, quiet, invisible, poor thing, couch potato, dirty guy, big guy, sweet tooth, neat, greedy, curmudgeon, chatterer, beast, star, idle talker, mumbler, arrogant, scoundrel, klutz, weasel, ask, hard worker, hard worker, ignorant, onlooker, drunkard, sweetheart, cudgel, imagined, hillbilly, slob, sleepyhead, sneak, whim, liar, scavenger, fidget, toastmaster, swashbuckler, rake.

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, Rasteryayka, two brothers - Avoska and Neboska. And the most famous among them was a kid named Dunno " (Nosov). Perhaps, it is the works of Nikolai Nosov that will become a real collection of words with a common gender.

The fewest words in this group are occupied by neutrally expressed ones, such as: right-handed, left-handed, colleague, namesake, orphan. The gender of such words is also common.

How to determine gender in common gender?

The general gender of nouns in the Russian language is determined by the impossibility of confidently indicating gender in the absence of pronouns and generic endings adjectives. Words that can be classified as either masculine or feminine will be included in this group.

In order to determine the gender of a noun, accompanying words are most often used demonstrative pronouns“this, this, that, that”, endings of adjectives -aya, -y/iy. But if the name of a profession, position or rank is determined with a consonant ending “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 “An 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 "An exemplary teacher conducted public lesson", "The cheerful puppeteer gave a performance" and "The old master sat down on the porch." The predicate does not have to show gender, then the task of determining gender becomes more complicated: "The teacher conducts a lesson", "The specialist makes a decision."

Variety of examples

Thanks to the 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”, “boring”, “white-handed”, “slut”, “weeper”, “dirty”, “little one”. And other words. But they are all united by ambiguity in the definition of gender. Orphan, stylist, marketer, comrade, coordinator, curator, Russian specialist, linguist, shirt, foreman, kid, judge, kolobrodina, feisty, razin, protégé, roar, singer, muffin, bombard, dunce, stupid, suck-up, upstart, youngster, fearful, poor thing, lame, charming, first-grader, high school student, eleven-year-old - all these nouns can be used in relation to both genders.

The wide cultural distribution of common nouns in the Russian language is also interesting. For example, they were widely used in proverbs and sayings:

1. A healthy man in food, but a cripple in work.
2. For every simpleton there is a deceiver.
3. A reveler in his youth is modest in his old age.
4. A drunkard is like a chicken, where he steps, he will peck.

And in literature:

1. “So a strange deal took place, after which the tramp and the millionaire parted, quite satisfied with each other” (Green).
2. “Good girl, one orphan” (Bazhenov).
3. “Your cleanliness, as doctors say, is sterile” (Dubov).
4. “Hillbilly! - What? - She recoiled” (Shargunov).

There are many such examples in the literature. Determining the general gender of the words listed in the exercise is one of the tasks in the Russian language lesson that is easy to cope with.