Всем привет! Hello everyone! Welcome to Spoonfed Russian and the Episode N6! Today we will taste Russian Pronouns and will learn how to identify the gender of Russian nouns.

Before we start:

• Download and open grammar comments: Episode 6 – Pronouns and Gender of Nouns (pdf);

 

 Russian pronouns and Gender of nouns: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Pronouns are used to substitute nouns or names in the sentence. Please open the grammar comments and repeat after me.

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Now let’s practice and do some exercises.

What is the gender of the nouns and how to say “My” for the following words?

• Мама. As we can see: it’s not an exception, ends with vowel “–a”. That means it’s feminine. So “My Mom” will be Моя мама;
• Папа. It ends with vowel but we remember that it’s an exception. Dad is always masculine. And “My Dad” will be Мой папа;
• Брат. Not an exception. Ends with consonant. No doubts – it’s masculine! My brother = Мой брат;
• Сестра. Not an exception. Ends with “-a”. It’s feminine! My sister = Моя сестра;
• Имя. Ends with “-я”. You may think it’s feminine. Check once again. It ends with “–мя”, so it’s neuter. My name = Моё имя;
• Фамилия. Ends with “-я” (not “-мя”). Simple – it’s feminine. My surname = Моя фамилия;
• Отчество. Ends with “-o”. Easy – it’s neuter. My patronymic = Моё отчество.

Homework:

• For all the nouns from the above exercise: how to say “His”, “Her” and “Your” (two versions: official and friendly). You can leave your answers in comment or e-mail me.
• For more practice you can identify the gender for the words from Episode 2 - Exercises (pdf) and Cartoon Vocabulary (pdf).

Good luck and see you! Пока-пока!