The Gender of Nouns

Род имён существительных

Russian nouns are distinguished by gender and change for number and case. All the nouns belong to one of three genders: masculine, feminine or neuter. The gender of a noun is generally shown by its ending.

Nouns without an ending whose stem terminates in a hard consonant or the consonant -й are masculine:

                                                        дом - house (ending in a consonant)

                                                        город - city (ending in a consonant)

                                                        музей - museum (ending in -й)

Nouns ending in -a or -я are feminine:           страна - country (ending in -а)

                                                        земля - earth (ending in -я)

Nouns ending in -о or -е/-ё are neuter:           письмо - letter (ending in -о)

                                                        море - sea (ending in -е)

                                                        здание - building (ending in -е)

                                                        ружьё - gun (ending in -ё)

Nouns ending in -Ь (the soft sign) make up a separate group and may be:  

Their gender must be memorised!