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Russian Masculine Nouns

Grammar --> Russian gender --> Masculine Nouns

Russian masculine nouns may end in a consonant, a vowel or -ь. The vast majority of declinable masculine nouns end in a consonant or -ь. There is also a large group of masculine nouns ending in -а/-я which includes nouns denoting male persons and nouns derived from other masculine nouns. Masculine nouns with other endings are, as a rule, indeclinable nouns borrowed from other languages.

Masculine nouns ending in a consonant

In majority of instances, nouns ending in a consonant or -й are masculine. There are very few exceptions, including feminine nouns that designate names and surnames of women, names of newspapers (see also: Feminine nouns), and neuter nouns denoting names of lakes (see also: Neuter nouns).

Examples of masculine nouns ending in a consonant:

Masculine nouns ending in a vowel

In general, masculine nouns may end in any vowel. This group of nouns mainly consists of nouns denoting male persons and indeclinable nouns borrowed from other languages. Note that nouns of common gender also end in a vowel and they can behave both as masculine and as feminine, depending on the referent. Nouns that end in a vowel and are masculine include:

Nouns ending in -a/-я that refer to male persons:

The grammatical gender of these nouns is determined the biological gender. They may be subdivided into the following groups:

- Names of male persons (proper names). There are a few names ending in -a in Russian, and usually names of males end in a consonant or -й. At the same time, most diminutive forms of Russian masculine names will have -а/-я on its end.

- Common nouns that denote male persons. These is a group of originally masculine nouns: дедушка grandfather, дядя uncle, мужчина man, папа dad, юноша young person.

Nouns derived from other masculine nouns with diminutive, laudative, augmentative and pejorative suffixes:

There are a lot of masculine nouns ending in -ишка, -ка, -ха, -ля, -ишко, -ище, etc., which express an emotion or an attitude of the speaker. Such words usually occur in colloquial Russian.

Indeclinable nouns denoting names of places (toponymes)

These are names of geographical places borrowed from other languages. The grammatical gender of these nouns may depend on the gender of Russian generic words denoting the relevant class of places. These nouns include:

- Indeclinable names of cities. They are masculine because the generic word город city is masculine in Russian.

- Indeclinable names of islands. They are masculine because the generic word остров island is masculine in Russian.

Nouns denoting animals and birds ending in -е, -и, -o, etc.

These are indeclinable words borrowed from other languages.

Nouns denoting male persons ending in -е, -и, -o, etc.

These are indeclinable words borrowed from other languages.

Indeclinable nouns denoting nonliving objects

Their grammatical gender often depends on the gender of Russian generic words denoting the relevant class. These are words borrowed from other languages that usually require consultation with dictionary to ascertain their gender.

Masculine nouns ending in -ь

There are only a few characteristics that allow to determine the gender of Russian nouns ending in -ь, that is why consultation with dictionary is recommended to ascertain their gender. Among masculine nouns ending in -ь, the following words have common features and may be united in the following groups:

• - nouns denoting male persons.

  учитель - teacher
  вратарь - goalkeeper
  парень - guy, fellow
  король - king

• - months

  январь - January
  февраль - February
  июнь - June

• - nouns ending in -тель

  выключатель - switch, button switch
  двигатель - engine, motor