1. In nouns that have a vowel before case endings and , written in the prepositional case of the singular (for feminine words also in the dative case) letter and , for example: about genius and, in Gogol's "Vi and”, under papa Pi and X, on the pool ki and, sisters and and or and, along the river B and, on the blade and (but: on sharp yo - under stress).

2. In neuter nouns - ye in the prepositional case of the singular, the letter is written e , for example: dream of happiness ye, on the Riga coast ye, live in Transcaucasia ye (but: in forget and - under stress).

3. Nouns with unstressed - me and - ye have an ending in the genitive plural - uy , and on the hit - ya and - yo - the ending - her . For example: naughty ya- naughty uy, wrist ye- wrist uy; scam ya- scam her, rouge yo- rouge her (but: cop yo- cop uy ).

Note. About Forms genitive plural of words top ye, bottom ye, mouth ye, outback ye and others see § 155, paragraph 3.

4. In the genitive plural of nouns in - nya with a preceding consonant (hard or soft) or th letter b at the end is not written, for example: vish nya- vish en, sleeping nya- slept en, the battle nya- bo en.
Exceptions: young ladies b, boyaryshen b, villages b, kitchens b.

5. Russian surnames on - ov (yov), - ev, -in, - yn have the instrumental singular ending - ym , foreign surnames on the - ov and - in - the ending - ohm . For example:
a) Nekrasov th, Solovyov th, Pleshcheev th, Nikitin th, Ptitsyn th;
b) Bülow ohm, Virchow ohm, Darwin ohm, Chaplin ohm.

The names of the settlements - ov, - ev, -in, - yn, -ovo, - evo, - ino, - yn have an ending in the instrumental case - ohm . For example: for Lviv ohm, near Kyiv ohm, for Tikhvin ohm, over Bykov ohm, for Ukleev ohm, near Borodino ohm, for Golitsyn ohm.

6. Masculine and neuter nouns with a suffix - seek- have the ending in the nominative singular - e , feminine nouns - ending - a . For example:
a) home home ische, swamp - swamps ische;
b) hand - hand looking for, dirt - dirt looking for.

In the nominative plural form, such feminine and masculine words have the ending - and , and the average - a . Thus, in the plural, the onomic forms of the nominative case of the singular of masculine and neuter nouns are differentiated. Wed: hatchet - hatchet and (large axes) - ax handle a (axe handles); hillfort - hillfort and (big cities) - settlements a (ancient settlements).

For nouns with suffixes - ear-, -yushk-, -yshk-, -chic- in the nominative singular it is written:
a) ending - a - for masculine words denoting animated objects, and for feminine words, for example: grandfathers a, father a, boy a; mother a, share a, small things a;
b) ending - about - for masculine words denoting inanimate objects, and for neuter words, for example: bread about, house about; polyushka about, grain about, coat about.

Note. About the difference of forms sparrow donut- sparrow ears and under. see § 159.

7. Animated masculine and common nouns have after the suffix -l- in the nominative singular ending - a , for example: refuel la, bison la ; neuter nouns - ending - about , for example: teeth lo, urine lo.

→Nouns: gender and number

Gender and number of nouns

Genus: There are three genders in Russian: masculine, feminine and neuter. Each noun belongs to one of these genders: father, boy a body, wolf, oak, house- masculine nouns; mother, girl, piss a vest, fox, pine, school about la- feminine nouns animal, tree, wing, field, building, feeling- nouns of the middle gender.

In animate nouns, the gender has a real meaning, indicating belonging to the male or female gender. Inanimate nouns have no connection between the meaning of the noun and its gender (even nouns related to the same thematic group, can have a different gender: for example, in the names of the days of the week, nouns Monday, Tuesday, Thursday- male, Wednesdays a, Friday, Saturday about that- female, Sunday- neuter). Thus, for most nouns, the gender has a grammatical character and is determined by a formal feature - by endings in the nominative case of the singular. Nouns that are used only in the plural have no gender (for example: spirit and, holidays, days).

Masculine nouns are nouns that end in:
a) into a hard consonant - house, table, world, city, view;

b) to a soft consonant (including and) - nail, fire, January, stream, hero;
c) on w, w, h, w(without soft sign) - knife, pencil, key, cape.

Some masculine nouns denoting males, as well as proper names men (often diminutive) have an ending - and I (man, young man, uncle, Borya, Vanya, Sasha, Nikita).

Feminine nouns are nouns that end in:

a) on -a, -i, -ya — country, land, party;
b) into a soft consonant - spruce, bed, area;
c) on w, w, h, w(with soft sign) — rye, mouse, night, speech, help.

The neuter gender is nouns that end in:

a) on -o, -e, -e, -e - window, sea, towel, gun, skill;
b) on -me — vr e me,and me, banner, flame.

Thus, nouns of the middle gender are most easily distinguished. Masculine and feminine nouns have overlapping forms of the nominative case (on a soft consonant, on w, w, h, w); their gender is best remembered in accordance with the instructions of the dictionary.

We can name only a few auxiliary ways to determine gender:

• masculine and feminine nouns in w, w, h, w, coinciding in pronunciation, in writing differ in the presence of a soft sign after the final consonant in feminine nouns and in the absence of it in masculine nouns ( rye is a knife, night is a ball);

• all animate nouns with a suffix -tel- male ( writer, reader);

• all inanimate nouns with a suffix -awn- female ( youth,
  nationality, independence).

Morphologically, the gender of nouns is manifested in case endings, syntactically - in the form of agreement with adjectives, pronouns, participles, and verbs in the past tense, cf .: last e daysthe day, the day has passed(m.), last autumn, autumn has passed(and.), last e summer is gone, summer is gone(cf.).

Number: Nouns have two numbers: singular and plural ( book - books, table - tables, teacher - teachers).

Only in the singular some nouns are used denoting substances, materials ( milk, salt, gold), abstract concepts (study, walking,presence, courage), the names of some plants ( potatoes, carrots, onions, strawberries), names of the countries of the world, as well as proper names (south, from e ver, Moscow, Volga, Caucasus, France,Warsaw).

Only in plural nouns are used denoting the so-called paired or compound objects (pants, gates, scissors, glasses), names of some substances ( perfume, cream, ink).

• ← Gender and number of nouns→

Spelling of noun endings depends on what type of declension these nouns belong to. Mistakes in choosing endings -e or -and do not occur in all case forms, but only in forms of three cases: genitive, dative and prepositional.

Nouns I declension (country, drop, uncle, alley) in genitive forms have the ending –s (s) , and in the forms of the dative and prepositional - e:

2. Nouns ending in -and I(army, series, line, Maria) form a special variant of the declension, in the forms of the genitive, dative and prepositional cases have an ending -and :

These words should not be confused with nouns in -ya, (Maria, Natalia, Sophia) which are declined according to the general rule and have the ending in the dative and prepositional cases -e: Marya, Natalia, Sophia, but: Mary, Natalia, Sofia; (o) Marya, (o) Natalya, (o) Sophia, but: (o) Maria, (o) Natalia, (o) Sophia.

3.Nouns II declension in the form of a prepositional case have an ending -e: (in) a house, (on) a horse, (on) a table, (o) heat, (in) hoarfrost.

4. Nouns III declension (sadness, night, rye, silence) in the genitive, dative and prepositional forms have an ending -and:

R.	Sad and	nights	Rzh-i	Tish-i
D.	Sad and	nights	Rzh-i	Tish-i
P.	(Oh) sad	(By the night	(In) rzh-i	(B) hush-e

5. Word path, as well as ten nouns on -mya (banner, flame, tribe, stirrup etc.) are inconsistent and in the forms of the genitive, dative and prepositional cases have an ending -:

6. Proper names, calling settlements, type Kashin, Kalinin, Borodino form special form instrumental case of the singular following the pattern of nouns of the second declension and have the ending -ohm : Kashin, Kalinin, Borodin. These words should not be confused with proper names that call Russian surnames (Kashin, Kalinin, Borodin), which in the instrumental form have the ending th: Kashin, Kalinin, Borodin.

7. Type Nouns sentry, canteen, ice cream, worker, formed from adjectives and participles change according to the pattern quality adjectives. Type nouns forester, draw, third -y- (like foxes, wolf). Surname type Smirnova, Orlova, Golubeva- according to the model possessive adjectives with suffix -oh- (type sisters, fathers).

Case forms of nouns in -i, -i, -i

1. Nouns with a non-monosyllabic stem masculine and neuter -th and -s in the feminine prepositional -and I in the dative and prepositional cases of the singular they have in an unstressed position, in derogation from the general rule, the ending -and , but not -e , for example: genius - about genius, sodium - about sodium, radium - about radium, Vasily - about Vasily, Yuri - about Yuri, department - in department, return - upon return, assistance - with assistance; army - to the army, about the army; line - along the line, on the line; station - to the station, at the station; Bulgaria - in Bulgaria, in Bulgaria; Mary - to Mary, about Mary.

If there are options for -s and -e, -and I and -ya these case forms have different endings - -e; for example: variant pairs like about skill - about skill, in flowering - in flowering, about verbosity - about verbosity, about Natalia - about Natalya, to Mary - to Marya.

In artistic, especially poetic, speech, it is allowed to write preposition forms. n. nouns environments, gender on -e (usually with the preposition in) with the ending -and , for example: In silence, you walked alone with a great thought(P.); There is a feat in the battle, / There is a feat in the struggle. / The highest feat is in patience, / In love and prayer(Hom.); And the snow competed in zeal / With twilight death(B. Past.); "Enchanted"(title of the poem by I. Severyanin); Birds are crying in the skies, / The heart is beating in the hypochondria(V. Valley). Under stress, the end of the preposition. P. -and only one word per -e: oblivion - in oblivion?.

2. Few nouns on -y, -iya with a monosyllabic stem in the indicated cases in an unstressed position, as a general rule, the ending -e. List of such words: serpent - oh serpent, cue - oh ki-e(option: about cue-), cue(Legendary founder of Kyiv) – about Kya, whose(plant) - about chie, "Viy" - in "Bue", Pius - about Pius, under Pope Pius; hriya(term of rhetoric) - by hrie, o hrie; Biya(river) - along Biya, on Biya; Oia, Leah, Via(female names) - to Ye, o Leah, o Bue; Gia(male name) - to Gia, oh Gia.

Few nouns have -s, -and I having an accent on the ending, the indicated case forms end in and on either e , for example: judge - to judge, about judge, lithium - in lithium-, litany - in litany, being - about being, living - about living, in living, but: tip - on the tip, on the tip, Ziya, Aliya, Zulfiya(personal names) - about Ziya, about Aliya, to Zulfiya, Kyzyl-Kiya-(city) - in Kyzyl-Kiya.

Case endings of plural nouns

1. For masculine nouns in the nominative plural, forms on ы(и) and a(я) are possible: courses, gardens, nails, banks, edges.

Forms ending in -а(-я) are used:

1) for many monosyllabic words: running - running, sides, sides, centuries (but: forever and ever, for once), eyes, houses, forests, meadows, horns, snow, varieties, haystacks, silks;

2) for words with singular stress on the first syllable: address - addresses, boats, buffers (and buffers), fans, bills, evenings, heaps, voices, doctors, snipes, huntsmen, gutters, pearls, millstones, boats, shakos, tunics, bells, domes, coachmen, ploughshares, masters, seine (and nets), numbers, hams, districts, warrants, islands, farming (and farming), cold cut, farm, skull, best man, stamp (and stamps), fitting (and fittings), sharper (and sharpers), also some other words like director, cuff, professor, sleeve;

3) for some homonymous words (the choice of a form for a (i) or for s (u) depends on the meaning): hogs("male pig") - hog("part of the chimney"), buildings("torso of a person or animal") - corps("building", "military unit"), camps("socio-political groups") - camps("temporary parking"), furs("mechanism for forcing air", "tank for wine") - fur("dressed animal skin"), images("generalized representation") - image(same as icon) orders("an organization with a specific charter") - orders("Mark of distinction"), passes("something missed, overlooked") - passes("document for the right to enter somewhere"), sable("furry animal") - sable(sable fur"), currents("traffic electric charge in the conductor") - current("a place for the display of birds", "a platform for threshing"), tones("musical sound") - tones("hue of color by brightness, color"), brakes(trans. "an obstacle in the development of something") - brakes("device for slowing down or stopping movement"), teachers("Head of Doctrine") - teachers("teacher"), loaves("product baked from flour") - of bread("cereals on the vine"), flowers("flowering plant") - colors("colour, light tone").

The semantic role of the endings -ы (-и) and -а (-я) is performed in the following words: teeth - teeth, roots - roots, hooks - hooks, sheets - leaves, men - husbands, sons - sons, shreds - shreds.

Many masculine nouns in the genitive plural form have a zero ending, i.e. end in a consonant stem. These include words that refer to:

1) paired items: (no) boot, felt boots, epaulette, stocking(but: socks), epaulet(but: rails);

2) some nationalities (for most words, the stem ends in -н and -р): (lifestyle) English, Armenians, Bashkir, Bulgarians, Buryat, Georgian, Lezghins, Ossetians, Romanians, Turkmens, Turks, Khazars, Gypsies; but: Bedouins, Kalmyks, Kirghiz, Koryaks, Mongols, Negroes, Orochs, Tajiks, Tungus, Uzbeks, Khakasses, Croats, Chukchis, Yakuts;

3) military associations: (detachment) partisans, soldiers; in the names of the former military branches, forms with a zero ending and -ov are used differentially, depending on the meaning: with a collective meaning (with indefinitely quantitative nouns army, detachment, army, group, etc.), a form with a zero ending is used: ( detachment) grenadier, hussar, dragoon, cuirassier, reiter("medieval warrior") lancer, and when denoting individuals (or a specific quantity called numerals) - the form in -ov: (five) hussars, cuirassiers; forms midshipman - midshipmen equally common; in the names of modern military branches, as a rule, full form: (Group) miners, sappers, also midshipmen ;

4) some units of measurement: (several) ampere, watt, volt, arshin, hertz, grain, oersted; fluctuations of the following counting forms are observed: micron - microns, ohm - ohms, x-ray - x-rays, gram - grams, kilogram - kilograms, carat - carats; as well as forms on ov: pendants(and pendant), Newtonian(and newton), ergs(and erg), dinars, hectares .

The following forms in ov are used as normative in the language: oranges, tangerines, tomatoes, tomatoes; but: eggplant - eggplant.

2. For feminine nouns ending in -a, in the genitive case after hissing ь is not written: barges (barge), thefts (theft), skis (ski), groves (grove), clouds (cloud), thousand (thousand).

Feminine nouns in -and I (army, line) and on -ya (if the stress does not fall on the ending: singer songwriter, laughter -th (this is the stem suffix, and the ending is null): armies, audiences, parodies, surnames, excursions, guests(but: guests from the guest), witches, fritters (fritter), songstress, dancers, jumpers, busybodies, minxes, squadrons.

Nouns with stressed -ya (bench) in the genitive case ends in -her (the end is also zero): tub (tub), rooks, Artemisia, pigs, families, articles; also judges (referee). Forms are normative shares, skittles, fines, handfuls, sakley, candles.

For feminine nouns -nya (cherry, bedroom) in the genitive case, ь is not written (the ending is zero): slaughterhouse (slaughter), cherries, belfries, baths, bedrooms.

Exceptions: young ladies, young ladies, villages, kitchens, as well as apple trees(from Apple tree); but: apple tree(from apple trees).

The normative forms of the genitive plural are: waffles, domain, poker, roofing, nannies, shafts (and shafts), sheets (and sheets), rods, weddings, gossip, estates (and estates).

Neuter nouns ending in -i ( edition, astonishment) and on -e ( necklace, foothills) in the genitive plural end in -y (the ending is zero): conquests, experiences, invitations, claims, disappointments, contests, formations; nomadic (nomadic), tombstones, coasts, suburbs, lands.

Nouns in -yo in the genitive plural they end in her (the ending is zero): guns(gun), drink- low use ( drink).

Exception: copies (a spear).

Nouns door, daughter, horse in the instrumental case end in -ми: doors, daughters, horses(form on -ami - obsolete). Nouns bone, whip in the instrumental case end in -ami : bones, lashes(form on -mi occurs only in stable combinations lie down bones).

Nouns that are used only in the plural form (such as rake, scissors), have the normative form of the genitive case: frosts, clavichords, clips, rags, antlers; attacks, scissors, pantaloons, darkness, twilight, harem pants; weekdays (less often weekdays), firewood, nursery; see also: frills, rake(less often rake), leggings.

Noun endings after suffixes

After the suffix -isch- for masculine and neuter nouns in the singular, the ending -e is written, and for feminine nouns - the ending -a: watermelon-seek-e, bass, giant, she-wolf, ancient settlement, rain, friend, piano, shoe, mind, swamp, log, wine; beards, heads, strengths, bores, shoes (shoes). In the plural, masculine and feminine nouns with this suffix have the ending -and , and nouns of the middle gender - ending -a : fences, boots, palms, corns; swamps, logs, windows .

After the suffixes -ushk-, -yushk-, -yshk-, -ishk- in the nominative case singular is written:

1) ending -a for feminine nouns and for animate masculine nouns: dum-ushk-a, zimushka, volushka, passion, talker, thief, sorceress, merchant, starling, coward;

2) ending -about for neuter nouns and for inanimate masculine nouns: mountains-yushk-o, healthy, milky, little coat, little voice, little town, rublishko, shed, little fence.

After the suffix -l- in the nominative singular of animate masculine and general nouns, the ending is written -a , for neuter nouns - ending -about : verzi-l-a, bigwig, ringleader, muff; bast, whetstone, sail, chisel.

After the suffix -its- neuter nouns have an ending -e : jam-its-e, health, estate, armchair, oil, estate (cf .: coat, gun).

From school times, we all remember that a noun is a part of speech that answers the question “who?”, “What?”, right? Absolutely right. AT Italian, unlike Russian, nouns have only 2 genders - masculine and feminine. It can be defined with an ending. Most nouns ending in -a are feminine: reppa f (feminine), as are most nouns ending in -o are masculine: albero m (masculine); however, nouns ending in -e can be both feminine - madre f, and masculine - padre m. You ask, but how to determine what kind of noun ending in -e? The answer is simple. In any Italian-Russian or Russian-Italian dictionary, next to the word you are interested in, there is a letter denoting the gender of the noun. That is, respectively, f - f.r. and m - m.s. This is for starters. Then they will need to be memorized. If at the right time there is no dictionary at hand, it does not matter. There is a hint. With a little thought, it can become clear to anyone what gender such words as madre (mother) and padre (father) belong to. If the word denotes a man, then it refers to the masculine gender and similarly, the mother is a woman, then the gender is feminine.

Similarly, one can argue when faced with nouns of a “general” gender - they have the same form regardless of the gender, for which the articles are used to clarify. For example, il nipote - nephew, grandson; la nipote - niece, granddaughter; il giovane - a young man, la giovane - a girl. Although not everything is so smooth here, take, for example, the word "abitante". It can be translated as "resident" and as "resident". Using definite articles, we will get the same version of l "abitante, and with indefinite articles, even though the difference in writing will be in the form of an apostrophe, it cannot be heard: un abitante is a resident, un'abitante is a resident. In such cases, it remains only to rely on the context .

To form plural nouns, replace the ending:

Zh.r.– vetrine a(showcase) - vetrine - showcases, signor a(signora) - signore - seniors, mogli e(wife) - mogl i(wives)

M.r.- biglietto (ticket) - biglietti (tickets), sportello (window) - sportelli (windows), ristorant e(restaurant) i(restaurants)

There are also nouns in Italian that end in -e in the masculine gender, and in the feminine they take on special endings, for example, -essa: lo studente (student) - la studentessa (student). Determining the gender of such nouns is not difficult.

The real problems start with inanimate nouns that end in -e. In this case, we cannot determine the gender, because these are objects. Logic and conjecture will not help us either, because there are no definite patterns and rules, and pace (pache - peace, tranquility) turns out to be feminine - la pace, and il mare (mare - sea) - masculine.

But this is still half the trouble. There are also nouns that can be both feminine and masculine, they look the same, but are translated differently: il fine (m.p. end, completion) - la fine (f.p. goal, intention); il fronte (m.r. - front) - la fronte (zh.r. - forehead). And what to do with it? Does every -e word need to be memorized separately? Not everything is so bad. There are several ways to help yourself with this.

1. Determining the gender of a noun depending on its meaning:

- All months in Italian, no matter what letter they end in, are masculine: settembre (September), ottobre (October), novembre (November), dicembre (December) - months ending -e.

- With rare exceptions, the names of trees ending in -e are also classified as masculine. For example, l "abete - spruce (exception: la vite - vine).

- As a rule, the names of lakes, rivers, seas and mountains are also masculine. Even in cases where they end in -a: il Volga, l "Etna.

- The feminine gender is typical for the names of states, regions, cities and islands: Firenze (Florence), Trieste (Trieste).

2. Determining the gender of a noun depending on its suffix:

- We have already said that most often the ending -a and suffixes ending in -a (we will not remember them separately, everything is clear from the ending) is inherent in the feminine gender. Also, nouns with the following suffixes are classified as feminine: - zione, - sione, - gione, - (t)udine, - aggine, - ità, - tà, -ù. For example, la delegazione (delegation), la professione (profession), la ragione (reason, argument), l'abitudine (habit), la fintaggine (falsehood, pretense), la verità (truth, truth), la volontà (will, desire), la virtù (virtue), grù (crane).

- The masculine gender is characterized by the ending -o and the following suffixes: -ore, -ame, -ume, -iere. For example, il motore (engine, motor), il bestiame (cattle), il fiume (river), il mestiere (craft).

- The suffix -one (often an augmentative) always indicates the masculine gender, regardless of the gender of the derived word: la donna (woman) - il donnone (woman), la casa (house) - il casone (big (apartment) house). Do not confuse with the feminine suffixes -zione, -sione, -gione.

- In addition, there are special suffixes that serve to designate professions, occupations. They are different for masculine and feminine: - ore, (- tore) - m.r. - attore (actor), professore (professor), traduttore (translator), - trice, essa - f. - attrice (actress), professoressa (female professor), traduttrice (translator).

In Italian, as in any other, of course, there are exceptions. I will give a couple of examples, such as: mano - hand, brush. At first glance, this is a masculine noun. And here it is not. La mano is feminine! Problema (problem), although it ends in -a, is a masculine word in Italian, il problema.

Victoria Blind,
December 2014