Russian common gender nouns

Russian grammar --> Russian gender --> Nouns of common gender

Russian has a particular group of nouns denoting people, called nouns of common gender. It means they can designate both men and women, and, depending on the context, they can manifest grammatical features either of masculine or feminine nouns. Unlike regular nouns, the nouns of common gender do not belong to only one gender class, but both to masculine and feminine.

As a rule, these are nouns ending in –a or –я (endings specific for feminine) that decline similarly to feminine nouns. Common gender nouns usually show a positive or a negative speaker's attitude towards the person he/she is talking about, e.g. умница smart person, растяпа blunderer etc. The grammatical gender of these nouns is the same as the biological gender of their referent, i. e. the forms of their modifiers will depend on whether they denote a male or a female. See examples below:

большой обжора - big glutton (referring to a male)
большая обжора - big glutton (referring to a female)

Он бедный сирота. - He is a poor orphan. (referring to a male)
Она бедная сирота. - She is a poor orphan. (referring to a female)

The forms of the modifiers depend on the referent's biological gender.

The table below represents some frequently used Russian common gender nouns.


Russian word Translation
бродяга vagrant
брюзга grumbler
ворюга thief
грязнуля dirty creature
гуляка reveler
егоза fidgeter
задира teaser
заика stutterer
зевака idler
злюка shrew
зубрила crammer
калека cripple
лежебока lazybones
невежа boor
недотрога untouchable
неряха sloven
обжора glutton
плакса crybaby
подлиза toady
пьяница drunkard
разиня gawker
растеряха looser of things
растяпа blunderer
ровня equal
сластёна sweet tooth
соня sleepyhead
тихоня demure person
тупица fool
умница clever person
ханжа bigot
хапуга greedy pig
юла whirligig, spinning top