Speaker A
So, pretty good. Lesson number two, Russian grammar course.
Lesson 2 of a Russian grammar course: learn how gender of nouns works, with masculine, feminine and neuter endings and pronunciation practice.
Key Takeaways
- Russian nouns are masculine, feminine or neuter, and the ending is a strong clue to gender
- Consonant endings usually mark masculine nouns, -a/-ya feminine, -o/-ye neuter
- Unstressed 'o' is pronounced as 'a', so pronunciation and stress matter from the start
- Shadowing the speaker is recommended to improve pronunciation
What the video covers
- Introduces Lesson 2 of the Russian grammar course, focused on gender of nouns
- Viewers who already know the topic can use the lesson to practise pronunciation by shadowing the speaker
- Explains that Russian nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter
- Masculine nouns most commonly end in a consonant (or soft sign-type endings, described as 'i short' / short e in the transcript)
- Feminine nouns most commonly end in -a or -ya
- Neuter nouns most commonly end in -o or -ye
- Gives example 'syn' (son) as a masculine noun ending in a consonant
- Gives example 'strana' (country) as a feminine noun ending in -a
- Gives example 'more' (sea), neuter, with the pronoun 'ano' (it)
- Uses 'gorod' (city) to show vowel reduction: unstressed o is pronounced like 'a'; the speaker promises future pronunciation rules and stresses correct pronunciation with accent retained
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Today we are going to talk about gender of nouns.
Speaker A
If you know this topic, if you know everything about gender of nouns in Russian language, you can still watch this lesson and work on your pronunciation.
Speaker A
Pronounce all the words with me out loud.
Speaker A
Try to shadow my pronunciation.
Speaker A
It will improve your pronunciation skills.
Speaker A
Let's start.
Speaker A
But I still have to cover all the topics.
Speaker A
So, number two, gender of nouns.
Speaker A
Gender of nouns.
Speaker A
Okay.
Speaker A
Let's start with some easy things.
Speaker A
For example, with the masculine, feminine noun with some basic rules.
Speaker A
So masculine, masculine, feminine.
Speaker A
Did I say nouns?
Speaker A
Neuter.
Speaker A
Neuter.
Speaker A
And neuter.
Speaker A
So, we have masculine, feminine, and neuter.
Speaker A
Great.
Speaker A
Masculine, the most common endings for masculine is a consonant.
Speaker A
When we have a consonant, that word is 100% masculine.
Speaker A
Consonant.
Speaker A
Or when we have e short.
Speaker A
E short, not so common, but still.
Speaker A
When we have e short ending, that noun is masculine.
Speaker A
Feminine, most common endings are a and ya.
Speaker A
We will write a lot of examples, don't worry.
Speaker A
And most common for neuter is o and ye.
Speaker A
O and ye.
Speaker A
Okay, so masculine nouns end in a consonant or i short, feminine in a or ya, and neuter in o or ye.
Speaker A
These are the most common endings.
Speaker A
Good.
Speaker A
Let's start with examples.
Speaker A
Syn for masculine, we have syn.
Speaker A
We have syn for masculine.
Speaker A
Syn, of course, means son, right?
Speaker A
Syn.
Speaker A
Practice with me out loud.
Speaker A
Try to imitate my pronunciation.
Speaker A
Syn is son, son.
Speaker A
Not the sun, son.
Speaker A
Child, son.
Speaker A
Good.
Speaker A
So, ends in a consonant, so this is masculine, right?
Speaker A
Great.
Speaker A
Now, feminine, strana.
Speaker A
Strana.
Speaker A
Ends in a, right?
Speaker A
So, it's feminine.
Speaker A
Strana means country.
Speaker A
Good job.
Speaker A
Strana, country.
Speaker A
Morye.
Speaker A
Morye.
Speaker A
Ends in ye, so it's neuter, right?
Speaker A
Morye, ano, neuter.
Speaker A
Yeah, also, actually, we can write here masculine is on, he.
Speaker A
Feminine, ana.
Speaker A
Ana, she.
Speaker A
Ana, she.
Speaker A
And neuter, ano.
Speaker A
It.
Speaker A
Ano.
Speaker A
It.
Speaker A
Morye is ano, it, in Russian language.
Speaker A
Great.
Speaker A
Next.
Speaker A
Gorod.
Speaker A
Gorod.
Speaker A
Gorod.
Speaker A
Gorod.
Speaker A
Here this first o is stressed, this one is not stressed, so pronounce it as a.
Speaker A
During this course I also will talk about pronunciation rules.
Speaker A
It's very important.
Speaker A
Also we have to pronounce words correctly from the beginning.
Speaker A
Correctly, not without an accent.
Speaker A
Accent is great, is beautiful.
Speaker A
Keep your accent, but correctly.
Topics:Russian grammargender of nounsRussian languagemasculine feminine neuterRussian pronunciationlearn RussianRussian noun endingsRussian for beginnersRussian stress
