Questions tagged [род]
For questions about grammatical gender of Russian nouns or general questions about gendered words in Russian, including appropriate translation equivalents of foreign words from languages that don't have the category of gender.
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"Eдинственная, кто поддержалa его" or "eдинственная, кто поддержал его"
Consider the two following phrases:
она единственная, кто поддержалa его
она единственная, кто поддержал его
Which one is correct according to official rules (whatever we mean by official. Let's say ...
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3
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Двойной род - это норма?
К примеру, возьмём слово "матриарх". Это слово мужского рода, но означает женщину. Как согласовываются с ним прилагательные и глаголы прошлого времени? Мне кажется, в текстах любят ...
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Why is “had no choice” translated as «не было выбора» and not «не был выбора»?
Было is neuter gender. But выбор is masculine gender (выбора is genitive case of выбор?). Is there a grammatical reason or even historical reason I missed out?
Additional background: I’m a beginner ...
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Why does the word "один" drop the "и" for its feminine and neuter forms?
The masculine form of "one" is "один," but it is "одна" and "одно" for the feminine and neuter, respectively. Why? In other words, why isn't it "одина&...
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Is Бангладеш a declinable Russian noun?
Must we decline Бангладеш? If the answer is 'no', then I'm curious why, and what gender does it have? Technically it's both страна (country) and государство (state); the grammatical gender of these ...
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What gender is "колибри"?
Neuter (такси, пари... — ends in И)
Masculine (кенгуру, фламинго — indeclinable animal names)
Or is it feminine because it's a bird (птица)? Or maybe due to some other causes.
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"В об(о,е)их коробках оказались семена" - which vowel should I choose?
Some time ago I took a Russian test that contained the following question:
В об(о,е)их коробках оказались семена.
1) обоих
2) обеих
3) оба варианта корректны
4) оба варианта ...
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17
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8
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"Член клуба" - how to use "член" in feminine here?
Let's consider this sentence:
I'm a member of the Japanese Renju Association.
A member translates into Russian as член, but the grammatical gender of this word is masculine, so I'm curious how I can ...
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Russian word for female teacher
I am unclear as to whether the word for a female teacher is учитель, учительница or училка. I believe it could be the first as, although the word is masculine, it refers to a profession and is like ...
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Wuhan: masculine, feminine, or either?
The question is about the use of the Chinese city name Wuhan, specifically, whether it should be declined as masculine or feminine:
Ухан - в Ухане - из Ухана OR Ухань - в Ухани - из Ухани
The ...
- 359
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Why is "животное" neuter even though it's animate?
Russian differentiates between animate and inanimate nouns:
Я вижу кота
Я вижу дом
In principle all animate nouns are either masculine or feminine but cannot be neuter. So why "животное" ...
- 105
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3
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415
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«Женское счастье», «мужское счастье»: как различаются эти выражения, какова их этимология?
Что конкретно имеется в виду, когда говорят о "женском счастье", откуда это выражение пошло, и почему гораздо реже встречается "мужское счастье"? (речь здесь идет не об одноименных цветах)
Пример:
...
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Rules for determining grammatical gender in Russian
How do you work out whether a Russian word is masculine, feminine, or neuter?
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Russian word for a male zebra
Let's suppose I am writing a fictional but realistic story about a male zebra.
Here is the problem. On the one hand, the grammatical gender of the Russian word "зебра" is feminine, so it is ...
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3
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Succinct and gender-neutral Russian word for "writer"
Imagine I want to translate to Russian the word "community of working writers" such that "writers" means both male and female ones.
Here are obvious variants:
Сообщество работающих литераторов и ...
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2
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Adjective gender for terms of endearment
When addressing someone with a term of endearment, should the gender of "my" match the word or the person? For example, when addressing a male as "my star", would you say Звездочка моя or Звездочка ...
9
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Как называются слова, меняющие значение в зависимости от рода: как "машинист" и "машинистка"?
Некоторые слова в зависимости от рода имеют разный смысл, например, "машинист" и "машинистка" — это совершенно разные профессии. Есть ли название у такого языкового феномена?
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Girlfriend vs friend
As far as I know, the word "girlfriend" in Russian is ambiguous. As well as the word for "female friend".
If I say ты хорошая подруга am I telling just "you're a good friend" with no ambiguity?
If I ...
- 2,563
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Genders - Nouns with "ь"
Is there a way to tell which are feminine or masculine if most nouns end with "ь"?
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Why is the adjective "главное" in neuter gender?
Why is the adjective "главный" in neuter gender in the following sentence? метод and результат are masculine.
главное не метод, а результат.
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Why did "он" suddenly become so much more common?
In the case of English, "she" was used much less than "he", and it still hasn't caught up. In Russian, it looks as if the translation of "he" almost didn't exist, until around 1915. What happened?
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Why does the word "мужчина" decline like a feminine noun?
In all languages with genders I know the word for man is masculine, and the word for women is feminine. While this is still technically true for the word мужчина, it is the only Russian masculine word ...
- 201
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1
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Which grammatical situations depend on the literal gender of a speaker?
Recently, a friend accused me of misgendering myself by using "feminine" verb endings. I am aware of many situations where there are verb endings for the grammatical gender of the noun, but when ...
- 203
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Gender agreement for verbs and adjectives
Assume that you are talking with a woman whom you address with "вы".
If you want to say, "You were here", which would be correct?
Вы была здесь.
Вы были здесь.
I assume that the second one is ...
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Gender of старому in "Им хотелось жить по-старому"
In "Им хотелось жить по-старому", is старому in masculine or neuter gender? Why?
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Verb was with masculine noum
Why in the following sentence we use
было instead of был, since we're talking about the husband? (Муж in this case).
Жена́ не выходи́ла из свои́х ко́мнат, му́жа тре́тий день не бы́ло до́ма.
English: ...
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Он обвиняет в этом жену?
«Когда русскому человеку особенно плохо живется, он обвиняет в этом
жену, соседа, погоду, Бога - всех, кроме самого себя.»
Этом - prepositional,
Жену - accusative.
Why don't they match?
Этом - ...
- 557
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What gender do place names take if they do not end in letters that mean that a gender is assigned to a noun by default?
I know that nouns that end in certain letters become by default male, but if a noun does not end in any of these letters (e.g., Бостон) what gender does it take by default?
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A children's riddle asks: 'А и Б сидели на трубе. А упало, Б пропало — что осталось на трубе?'
A children's riddle asks А и Б сидели на трубе. А упало, Б пропало - что осталось на трубе?
Правописание(Spelling). The answer is И!.
But if you search the web you will find an approximately equal ...
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How do you describe homosexual marriages in Russian?
The words for marriage are clearly gender-linked in Russian.
I'm guessing that for two women, you'd say "Она женилась на ней / Она женат." Correspondingly, I'd think that for two men it would be "Он ...
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Why is the Gentive in Question—что нового? итд
что нового?
что интересного?
I've read a lot about grammar this year, and nothing seems to fit with this usage.
Is it an abbreviation of some fuller phrase from the past? Many times if one can ...
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Ни он ни она не хотели уходить первым?
Подскажите, пожалуйста, насколько правильно это предложение.
Тут и он, и она, и множественное число и в конце ещё надо поставить прилагательное в каком-то роде.
Может быть, у вас есть идеи, как это ...
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Родительный падеж + количество
Скажите, пожалуйста, как объясняется тот факт, что при использовании количества, больше одного, подлежащее становится дополнением (если это правильно) и переходит в родительный падеж.
В нашей комании ...
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Which form of past tense should be used when the gender of the speaker is unknown?
For instance, you heard a quote from a poem or a proverb, but you don't know who exactly said it.
Do you use
Кто сказал "я к розам хочу, в тот единственный сад / Где лучшая в мире стоит из оград"?
...
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Если слово спикер употреблено по отношению к женщине, его можно не склонять?
Прочитал в статье:
Путин направил соответствующее письмо спикер верхней палаты Валентине Матвиенко перед отлетом в Вену...
Сначала был уверен, что опечатка. Потом подумал, может новое правило или ...
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"Website": in Russia they say "Мой сайт". In Canada many say "Моя сайт"... Wonder why
I've noticed that my Russian-speaking Canadian friends who left Russia before the Internet era always say "моя сайт", "красивая сайт".
People in Russia say "мой". Same I hear from Russians in Israel. ...
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How to conflate feminine and masculine last names for a couple? [closed]
I am writing an English letter to a married Russian couple, and they've got the same root for their last name, with a '-a' suffix for hers. Is there an acceptable way to address them both without ...
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Why does the dictionary not have a gender for "часы"
It only says it is a noun and in singular number.
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2, 3 and 4 with feminine nouns denoting animals
I was explaining to a friend how to use nouns with numerals 2, 3 and 4 and figured out that I don't know which of the following two possibilities is correct:
1a. Я вижу две вороны.
1b. Я вижу ...
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Rules for attaching gender to foreign company names
If we use name of a foreign company as a single word f.e. Samsung, Ford, Microsoft, IBM, Shell, and even StackOverflow, what gender form the following verb should take?
Should it be Samsung предложил ...
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Is there a rule for figuring out the gender of a word?
I am having a hard time with understanding why the word "врач" belongs to the second declension. The reason for that is that it's not obvious to me that the gender of врач is always masculine which is ...
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“Она врач” or “она врачь”?
So my question is whether I should use a soft sign at the end of врач when I am referring to a woman doctor? It seems like in this case врач becomes feminine and the same rule as for ночь has to be ...
- 4,252
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Gender and forms of "рыба-кит"
What is the gender of the word "рыба-кит"? Should I say "огромная рыба-кит" or "огромный рыба-кит"?
Also, how should I change it if it is not in nominative case?
Gramota.ru suggests that рыба-кит ...
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Why "подруга", not "друга"
I wonder are there any other cases when prefix по- indicates feminine gender?
I can recall some nouns with по- prefix, like постель or повесть, but this words have roots that are also feminine.
On ...
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Усатый нянь or what to call a male nanny (babysitter)?
Following the question about common feminine suffices for profession titles.
Word няня has several meanings. According to gramota.ru:
1. Работница, занимающаяся уходом, присмотром за детьми (в ...
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Words in "common gender"
In addition to the masculine, feminine, and neuter genders, there are words of "common gender" (слова общего рода) that nearly all decline like a feminine noun but are applied to both men and women. ...
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Действительно ли по новым правилам слово "кофе" среднего рода?
Многие говорят, что согласно новым правилам "кофе" официально стал(о) считаться существительным среднего рода. Насколько это соответствует действительности?
Если это действительно так, то когда было ...
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