{"id":9543,"date":"2016-10-31T07:31:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T07:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=9543"},"modified":"2018-08-14T19:33:22","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T19:33:22","slug":"five-easy-parts-of-learning-russian-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/five-easy-parts-of-learning-russian-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Easy Parts of Learning Russian \u2014 Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image from Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

This is part one of this post. Make sure you read part two<\/a> when it comes out.
\n<\/em>Russian has the reputation of a hard-to-learn language. The Foreign Service Institute has placed Russian into category 4<\/a> out of 5 for how long it takes native English speakers to learn it. A different alphabet, noun declensions, verb conjugation, not to mention verb aspect \u2014 there are so many challenges for the learner! Fortunately, there are also things that are easy to grasp in Russian.<\/p>\n

Determining Noun Gender<\/h2>\n

Russian has three noun genders \u2014 feminine (\u0436\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0440\u043e\u0434<\/strong>), masculine (\u043c\u0443\u0436\u0441\u043a\u043e<\/span>\u0439 \u0440\u043e\u0434<\/strong>) and neuter (\u0441\u0440\u0435<\/span>\u0434\u043d\u0438\u0439 \u0440\u043e\u0434<\/strong>). While grammatical gender for inanimate objects is not the most intuitive concept, determining noun gender in Russian is fairly straightforward. The “standard” endings for each gender are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Gender<\/td>\nEndings<\/td>\nExamples<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Feminine<\/td>\n-\u0430, -\u044f<\/td>\n\u043f\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0430<\/span> (stove), \u0434\u044b<\/span>\u043d\u044f<\/span> (melon)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Masculine<\/td>\nzero ending (ends with a consonant)<\/td>\n\u0447\u0430<\/span>\u0439\u043d\u0438\u043a (tea kettle)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Neuter<\/td>\n-\u043e, -\u0435<\/td>\n\u0434\u0435<\/span>\u0440\u0435\u0432\u043e<\/span> (tree), \u043c\u043e<\/span>\u0440\u0435<\/span> (sea)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

These rules typically apply to loanwords regardless of their gender in the original language. For example, \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0431\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u043c\u0430<\/strong> (problem) is feminine in Russian, although\u00a0\u03c0\u03c1\u03cc\u03b2\u03bb\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1 \u200e(pr\u00f3bl\u0113ma) was neuter in Greek — compare to das Problem (neuter, German) and el problema\u00a0(masculine, Spanish). Similarly, \u0443\u043d\u0438\u0432\u0435\u0440\u0441\u0438\u0442\u0435<\/span>\u0442<\/strong> (university) is masculine in Russian although\u00a0\u016bniversit\u0101s (Latin) and die Universit\u00e4t (German) are feminine.<\/p>\n

There are, of course, special cases, including:<\/p>\n