What is gender in relation to the Russian language, how many genders are there in the Russian language and which ones are distinguished?
Schoolchildren begin to become familiar with this category in primary school, gradually deepening and consolidating your knowledge. In the fifth grade, information about the genus is replenished and consolidated on more complex material.
How many genders are there in Russian?
The following system is presented in Russian:
- Feminine gender.
- Masculine.
- Neuter gender.
- Common gender.
The gender of words used only in plural.
How many genders does a noun have in Russian?
To determine the gender of a noun, set to this word semantic question: is it mine? She is mine? is it mine?
As can be seen from the table, gender is determined only for nouns in singular. Nouns used only in the plural (trousers, glasses, sleigh) are outside the category of gender.
When determining the gender of nouns, schoolchildren often have difficulty with 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 classify them as masculine or feminine, depending on the context, others identify such words in special kind- general.
Indeclinable foreign language nouns also cause difficulties. In writing, they resemble words related to the neuter gender. Indeed, most of them belong precisely to this genus, but there are (let's say) exceptions to the rule.
Yes, according to literary norm, the noun "coffee" is masculine. It would be incorrect to say “my coffee.” This is a mistake, the correct option is “my coffee”.
The noun "euro", by analogy with other names monetary units, refers to the masculine gender. By the same principle, the nouns “suluguni”, “sirocco”, “penalty” refer to the masculine. Based on the same analogy, the nouns "avenue", "salami", "kohlrabi" are feminine.
If you have any doubts about the gender of a noun, you should consult Russian dictionaries.
How to determine the gender of an adjective?
Unlike a noun, for which the gender category is unchangeable, for an adjective it is a changeable category and is determined depending on the context. The rule by which the gender of this part of speech is determined is in the following way: the gender of the adjective is determined by the word it defines, that is, by the noun.
For example:
- The girl was wearing a beautiful (s.r.) dress. ("Dress" is mine, therefore it is neuter gender, which means that the adjective “beautiful” also belongs to the neuter gender).
- He was a handsome (m.) man. The street is beautiful (f.r.).
Indeclinable adjectives are also distinguished. For example: khaki pants.
Now you know the answer to the question of how many genders there are in the Russian language. We also analyzed their definition using examples. It is very important to be able to determine the gender of a noun or adjective - this will help to avoid grammatical errors.
The gender of a noun refers to its lexico-grammatical categories. Morphological character kind is manifested in the ability of this part of speech to be combined with dependent words. Nouns related to different kinds, differ from each other case endings in declension, word-formation structure and some lexical features. There are three forms of gender in the Russian language - masculine, feminine and neuter.
You will need
- - analyzed word;
- - linguistic dictionary or study guide.
Instructions
When determining female For inanimate nouns, keep in mind that they have endings in the nominative singular form -а, -я (wall, will) and zero if the noun ends in soft sign(rye). For animate nouns the defining feature is that they are female creatures (girl, cat). In order not to confuse the endings of feminine and feminine nouns male, substitute the pronouns “she, mine” to check. For example, a song (she, mine).
Determine the masculine gender of nouns by ending initial form: zero for words ending in a consonant (house, table), -a, -ya - for animate nouns naming 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 indeclinable nouns, ending in the combination -mya, also refers 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 determination of gender in which is difficult. These include common nouns, indeclinables and compound words.
Correlate the meanings of common nouns with their belonging to animate objects of the female or male gender. For example, a slob 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 (architect Ivanov - architect Ivanova).
Keep in mind that the gender indeclinable nouns associated with their animateness/inanimateness, species/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 (coat, muffler). Exceptions are words whose gender is determined by association with generic names: kohlrabi - cabbage (feminine), Hindi - language (masculine), etc.
§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 Gryaznova, director Petrova, 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 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 an 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 for long-term use received the form of gender not according to the gender of the main word, but according to its own 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
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) Singular masculine nouns 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 a 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 nouns, there are several special groups, the determination of gender 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 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 Organization, leading word“organization” (feminine).
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All Russian speakers are accustomed to words divided into three categories of grammatical gender: masculine, feminine and neuter. But at the same time, there are languages in the world in which the category of gender is completely absent. And languages in which the number of genders is in the dozens.
In fact, most languages have no concept of gender at all. A typical example of this is. Although, there is another opinion - that the gender is present in any case, it’s just that the endings of the words do not change. Pronouns (he/she/it) and words like lion/lioness are also cited as evidence of gender in English. However, in in this case It's more about vocabulary.
There are no genders in many other languages. For example, . Moreover, in the overwhelming majority (about 3/4) modern languages there is no concept of grammatical gender.
This does not bother native speakers in any way. Moreover, in some cases, the absence of gender may even make life easier. For example, there is no need to solve riddles like: “coffee” and “whisky” are “he” or “it”. And schoolchildren do not have to memorize what gender a particular word belongs to.
On the other hand, in some cases gender can be used as a tool for disambiguation. For example, in Russian there are the words “friend” and “girlfriend”, while in English only “friend” - the gender here can be determined solely from the context.
The presence of gender in the target language can significantly complicate learning for a native speaker of a language that does not have such a concept. Also, many problems arise in cases where the births do not coincide. For example, the word “chair” in Russian is masculine, while in French (chaise) it is feminine. There are many such examples.
IN various languages The gender of a noun can influence other words in a sentence. For example, in Russian the verb changes: “the cat ran”, but “the cat ran”. At the same time, depending on the gender, the article changes, but not the verb. At the same time, there are languages in which changes can be literally total. For example, not only verbs can agree by gender (and even in all tenses), but also adverbs with prepositions.
Some languages have two genders. For example, in Swedish, the masculine and feminine genders were so similar that over time they merged into one common gender. As a result, the language has only neuter and common gender. The situation is similar in language. IN Arabic also there are only two genders - masculine and feminine.
Languages with genders can be divided into 4 main types:
- Masculine and feminine ( , Albanian...);
- Masculine, feminine and neuter gender (,...);
- General and neuter gender (,...);
- Animate and inanimate (Basque, some extinct languages).
In some languages it is very easy to determine what gender a word is. For example, in (with rare exceptions) all masculine words end in -o, and feminine words end in -a. In Russian there are no clear boundaries. In addition, often words that mean the same thing can have different genders. A typical example: the word “potato” is masculine, and “potato” is feminine.
There are also languages in which the number of genders is so large that they use the concept of “class”. Moreover, the number of such classes can exceed several dozen. For example, there may be classes of plants, animals, objects, etc. There are especially many languages with such features in Africa. Moreover, in them the class of the noun often influences not only the verb, but in general almost all the words in the sentence.
However, all the languages of the world have one thing in common - a noun cannot arbitrarily change its gender (class). Unless it changes over time. This usually happens with words of foreign origin that have already had time to “get comfortable.”
The reasons for the emergence of division into clans are not known, because all this happened in very ancient times. It is only clear that the basis of everything was the way of life primitive people and their needs. But which ones exactly, one can only guess. Scientists are building various assumptions, looking more or less convincing.
And we can’t help but mention one more important aspect - grammatical gender, its presence or absence, has a huge impact on the culture of the people who are native speakers.