**DAY 3 Russian Grammar Course (September to May Programme)-Gender of Nouns Part 2 — Transcript & Summary | SozAI** Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/russian-grammar-course-day-3-gender-of-nouns-part-2/ Lesson 3 of a Russian grammar course covers the gender of nouns, focusing on masculine months, neuter foreign words, and exceptions, with pronunciation practice. ## Key Takeaways - All Russian month names are masculine regardless of their ending. - Many foreign loanwords such as palto, menyu, taxi, and kafe are neuter despite appearances. - Unstressed vowels are reduced in pronunciation, which is key to correct Russian speech. - Some masculine nouns look feminine or neuter, and the lesson stresses memorizing these exceptions. - Profession nouns may take either gender, with agreement in verbs and adjectives reflecting the person's sex. ## What the video covers - Introduces Part 2 of the gender of nouns lesson, with the instructor urging learners to shadow pronunciation out loud. - States that all month names in Russian are masculine, even when they end in a soft sign or other feminine-looking endings. - Reviews the months yanvar, fevral, mart, aprel, may, iyun, avgust and sentyabr, noting pronunciation shifts from unstressed vowel reduction. - Explains that unstressed 'a' and 'o' are reduced to a sound like 'a' or 'i', while foreign words typically keep the 'o' sound (radio, metro). - Covers neuter foreign borrowings such as palto, menyu, kafe, taxi, pure, ragu and hobby, which are neuter despite sometimes looking masculine or feminine. - Discusses masculine nouns with feminine-looking endings, such as dyadya (uncle), and words like kofe, tornado and viski that are masculine. - Introduces profession nouns that can take either gender, explaining that the verb and adjective agree with the referent's sex while the noun form stays masculine. - Gives the example of 'president' used for a woman (Anna), where verbs shift to feminine agreement. - Ends with a call to comment favorite months in Russian and to like and subscribe. ## Chapters 1. 00:00 Introduction and lesson overview 2. 00:41 Masculine month names 3. 03:43 Pronunciation and vowel reduction in months 4. 04:39 Neuter foreign words and examples 5. 08:29 Foreign loanwords: pronunciation and stress 6. 15:52 Exceptions: masculine nouns with feminine or neuter look 7. 18:00 Profession nouns and gender agreement 8. 18:48 Wrap-up and call to action Answers ## Questions about this video Why are all Russian month names masculine? The instructor explains that all months in Russian are masculine, regardless of whether their endings look feminine or neuter. Learners are told to treat this as a rule and not change the word. How does vowel reduction affect pronunciation in these words? Unstressed vowels such as 'a' and 'o' are reduced, so 'yanvar' sounds like 'ynvar' with a weaker first vowel. The instructor says foreign words often keep the full 'o' sound, as in radio and metro. Can a profession noun refer to a woman? Yes. Words like 'president' remain masculine in form, but the verbs and adjectives change to feminine agreement when referring to a woman, as in the example of Anna. ## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown 00:02 Speaker A Lesson number three. Today we're going to continue talking about um gender of nouns. If you know this topic, if you want, you know all about uh gender of nouns, work on your pronunciation. 00:17 Speaker A If you know the topic that we are talking about, still stay here with us and work on your pronunciation. 00:24 Speaker A If you know the topic that we are talking about, still stay here with us and work on your pronunciation. 00:41 Speaker A Number three, gender of nouns. Nouns part two. Perfect. So all the month are in masculine in Russian language. Good news. 01:00 Speaker A Pronounce all the words with me out loud. Try to imitate my pronunciation to shadow it. It will increase your speaking skills, your pronunciation skills. So let's start. Gender of nouns part two, lesson number three. 01:16 Speaker A Yinvir. Let's start, of course, with yinvir. You know by now that when a word ends in a soft sign, it can be masculine or feminine. When we are talking about a month, it's masculine. 01:35 Speaker A Number three, gender of nouns. Nouns part two. Perfect. So all the months are in masculine in Russian language. Good news. 01:50 Speaker A And this soft sign makes a consonant before it softer. When you pronounce it, try to smile. 02:04 Speaker A All the months are in masculine. Masculine. Let's write them down, pronounce them, work on our pronunciation. 02:23 Speaker A Fal mart m ends in a consonant and of course it's masculine but also it's masculine because it's a month and all the month are masculine. March. 02:42 Speaker A Yanvar. Let's start, of course, with yanvar. You know by now that when a word ends in a soft sign, it can be masculine or feminine. When we are talking about a month, it's masculine. 02:57 Speaker A And you are not allowed to change it. Pronounce it as it is. As yeah. Appel. 03:04 Speaker A When "a" is not stressed, when any vowel is not stressed, it will be reduced. So more, some less. Here in this word "yanvar," the "a" will be pronounced as "ɨ" because it's not stressed. 03:51 Speaker A Mine is a [laughter] all three of them. Augusta I stress we emphasize it. August. 04:10 Speaker A And this soft sign makes a consonant before it softer. When you pronounce it, try to smile. 04:39 Speaker A This is a birthday month for me. or not stressed always is pronounced as a and the last one is yeah not stressed we pronounce s e next we have a four we Foreign words are usually um not uh neuter. 05:18 Speaker A Great. Uh, of course. Fevral. Same here. Here "e" will be reduced. It will be pronounced as "ɪ." Fevral. Fevral ends in a consonant, and of course it's masculine, but also it's masculine because it's a month, and all the months are masculine. February. 05:29 Speaker A Okay. So foreign words usually neuter especially when inanimate because there are some animate uh uh words that are borrowed from other languages and they're feminine or masculine. 05:51 Speaker A Aprel. Aprel. Aprel. When a vowel is stressed, pronounce it a little bit longer. Emphasize it. Aprel. 06:12 Speaker A pronounce it as a but not for foreign o words with foreign words in general we keep O S O radio like in this word radio metro metro. 06:33 Speaker A And you are not allowed to change it. Pronounce it as it is. Aprel. 06:49 Speaker A Very good. Next. Palto. Palto coat. Palto is coat. All of them are neuter. Palto. 07:04 Speaker A Only vowels that are not stressed can be reduced. Perfect. Mart. Mart. My, my. May. Of course it means May. My. This word is pronounced short. My, my. June, write in the comments in Russian what is your favorite month. 07:32 Speaker A watching taxi so menu is neuter taxi taxi Do not stress I here in Russian language. E is stressed taxi. 07:47 Speaker A Mine is all three of them. Avgust. We stress it. We emphasize it. Avgust. 08:25 Speaker A Ragu. Do you know what ragu is? Ragu. Ragu. is this kind of uh food dish kind of dish with meat and vegetables. Ragu [clears throat] I think in English is it is ragu as well. Ragu and I think we 08:46 Speaker A Perfect. You're not stressed. We pronounce "e," and of course it means September. Practice with me out loud, my pronunciation. 09:05 Speaker A Let's continue. So puree is mashed potatoes. Okay. Pure. Memorize this word. Everybody loves mashed potatoes, right? Pure pure. 09:21 Speaker A This is a birthday month for me. "O" when not stressed is always pronounced as "a," and the last one, "ya," is not stressed, so we pronounce it as "i." Next, we have "a four." Foreign words are usually, um, not, uh, neuter. 09:36 Speaker A Exceptions. And we have here uh some exceptions. Ah, let's add hobby. I forgot about hobby. Sorry. Hobby is hobby is neuter as well. Hobby. Neuter. 09:53 Speaker A Words that were borrowed from foreign languages are usually neuter, especially when they're inanimate objects. 10:12 Speaker A Coffee looks like neuter. You can see it ends in here, but it's masculine. Always masculine. 10:20 Speaker A Okay. So foreign words are usually neuter, especially when inanimate, because there are some animate words that are borrowed from other languages, and they're feminine or masculine. 10:28 Speaker A masculine masculine masculine. What else? Tornada. Tornada. Tornado. Tornado. Tornada. [clears throat] All the O's yera and here will be pronounced as a when they are not stressed. 11:00 Speaker A Um, but in general, inanimate ones are neuter. For example, let's come up with examples. Radio. Also, you can see here that "o" is not reduced. We pronounce it as "o," although the rule is that when "o" is not stressed, we pronounce it as "a," but not for foreign "o" words. With foreign words in general, we keep the "o," like in this word, radio. Like in this word, metro. 11:24 Speaker A So masculine masculine. What else? Visi. Vis the drink. Visi is masculine. So you will say good whiskey. You will use masculine. 11:42 Speaker A Here we reduce "e." We will pronounce it as "i." And don't forget to stress "o" in this word, not "metro." It's a common mistake, but stress the "o." Metro. 11:58 Speaker A Um. Okay. Ends in aka looks like feminine. This one looks like neuter. This one looks like neuter. Neuter. Neuter. But they're masculine. 12:18 Speaker A Very good. Next. Palto. Palto is coat. All of them are neuter. Palto. 12:32 Speaker A Also looks like feminine, but it's we are talking about an uncle and an uncle is a man. So although has this feminine ending is masculine. 12:47 Speaker A Palto. Menyu. Menyu. Here it is easy, because "o" is, anyway, an ending for neuter. But we have, for example, "menu" in English, "menyu" in Russian. The "yu" is stressed, so this one will not be reduced. Menyu. May I have the menu? 13:10 Speaker A Mushina. Mushina. Work on your pronunciation. Pronounce these words with me out loud. Mushina. This combination here will be pronounced as sha letter. Mushina. A man. Mushina. 13:28 Speaker A Taxi. So "menyu" is neuter. Taxi. Do not stress the "i" here in Russian. The "e" is stressed. Taxi. 13:49 Speaker A They have not an ending for neuter. Neuter, but they are neuter. They're exceptions. Like, for example, the word ima. 14:00 Speaker A Taxi. Very good. Cafe. Cafe. Cafe. You know this word. Resume. CV. Okay. Jelly. Jelly. 14:13 Speaker A V. Same with time. Time feminine ending but it's neuter. Time. [clears throat] Today we learn only the most common examples. 14:33 Speaker A Ragu. Do you know what ragu is? Ragu. Ragu is this kind of food, a dish with meat and vegetables. Ragu. I think in English it is "ragu" as well. Ragu, and I think we borrowed it from French. Pure, from French, of course. Pure, mashed potatoes. Pure. Good. So these are some of the examples. 15:01 Speaker A Very good. And the last one, the last topic that we are going to discuss today, we are going to talk about words that can be masculine and feminine. And these are uh professions and feminine. Some of the professions 15:20 Speaker A Let's continue. So "pyure" is mashed potatoes. Okay. Pure. Memorize this word. Everybody loves mashed potatoes, right? Pure, pure. 15:27 Speaker A We will change the verb. We will change the adjective in feminine but we will leave that word in masculine. The profession we will leave in masculine. 15:37 Speaker A Now let's talk about exceptions. Exceptions. Exceptions. Exceptions. Sorry, I wrote it in red. Exceptions. 16:17 Speaker A it's masculine but we can use it with feminine for example Anna president she is a president but of course we will we will change the verbs for example the president came came in version language will be in feminine if we're talking about a woman 16:38 Speaker A Exceptions. And we have here some exceptions. Ah, let's add "hobby." I forgot about "hobby." Sorry. "Hobby" is neuter as well. Hobby. Neuter. 17:10 Speaker A the president came and by the verb I understand that the president is the is a woman not by the noun when you say just for example president Montenegro I think she's a woman right Montenegro I don't know if I don't know if she's a 17:31 Speaker A Hobby. So, exceptions: masculine, but they look like a different gender, not masculine, but they will be masculine. And of course, the first place is coffee. 17:44 Speaker A Very good. Perfect. Another example is on engineer on engineer and the same will be an engineer. 18:03 Speaker A Coffee looks like neuter. You can see it ends in "e," but it's masculine. Always masculine. 18:48 Speaker A photograph photograph an photograph. And same for Anna. Anna photograph. Anna photograph. Very good. That's all for today. Don't forget to like and subscribe. 19:05 Speaker A Don't treat it as neuter. It's a very, very big mistake in Russian language. 19:23 Speaker A Thank you very much. uh watch my other courses with short stories with dialogues starting from September 1st. I will use all these rules that I discuss here. All the words that we are using here, I will use them in short stories and in 19:42 Speaker A Masculine, masculine, masculine. What else? Tornado. Tornado. Tornado. Tornado. All the "o"s, "ya," and "e" here will be pronounced as "a" when they are not stressed. 19:56 Speaker A Spicy. See you tomorrow. Moyu. Topics: Russian grammar gender of nouns Russian months Russian pronunciation masculine nouns neuter nouns loanwords Russian exceptions language learning stress and vowel reduction Study this video - [Flashcards from this video](https://sozai.app/tools/ai-flashcard-generator/?from=transcript&id=86089) - [Quiz on this video](https://sozai.app/tools/quiz-generator/?from=transcript&id=86089) Free, made by AI from this transcript. 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