Grammar Lesson 2

9 ноября 2016

1. Hard Stems and Soft Stems

Nouns of masculine, feminine and neuter gender have hard stems or soft stems.
Hard stem ends in a hard consonant: дом-Ø, ламп-а, окн-о (final м, п, н are hard in these words).
Soft stem ends in a soft consonant: словар-ь, песн-я, мор-е (final р, н, р are soft in these words).
We learned earlier that a hard consonant is indicated by the vowels а, о, у, э, ы; a soft consonant is indicated by the vowels я, ё, ю, е, и and the soft sign ь.
If a paired consonant is the last letter in a word it is considered hard (see Pronunciation and Spelling Guide for more details and examples).

Soft stems of masculine nouns are indicated by the letters -й and -ь (soft sign): музей, словарь.
Soft stems of feminine nouns are indicated by -я and -ь: песня, дверь.
Soft stems of neuter nouns are indicated by -ё and -е: ружьё, море.
For the nouns that end in ь, you must learn their gender when you learn the words. Feminine nouns that end in ь are labeled as f.or ж., in the word lists and dictionaries, for example: дверь ж. - door (if a noun that ends in ь has no special label, it is masculine).
ж. (= женский род ) - f. (=feminine);
Compare the spelling and pronunciation of hard and soft stem nouns. Click the words to listen.

Hard stem
Soft stem
Masculine
дом-Ø
музе-й
house, museum
словар-ь
dictionary
Feminine
ламп-а
песн-я
lamp, song
двер-ь
door
Neuter
окн-о
ружь-ё
window, gun
мор-е
sea

2.
Exceptions: Masculine or Feminine?

All nouns referring to men and boys are masculine, even though some of them end in -а or -я. For example: папа - dad, дедушка - grandfather, дядя - uncle, and many men's and boy's nicknames: Миша, Серёжа, Ваня, etc