Thread: Really confused on gender of words....

My book is trying to explain it to me using a chart, but I don't understand. Heres the chart:


Gender chart 001.JPG


Thanks.

What book are you using? It does not look like a very clear textbook. Look for a college-level book if you are that age -- there are several good ones:
Nachalo
Golosa
V puti.
I think the чей stuff is too complicated for someone at your level. Get a good textbook and read it through in sequence, don't jump around. These three series also come with a workbook, and, I think, DVDs.

These are different possessive pronouns and the appropriate question word given in their three different gender forms. The first word for instance means "whose?", the second "my", the third "your" and so on, which in Russian, in contrast to English, all carry gender information. For example, "машина", "car", is feminine. Therefore "whose car is this?" is "чья эта машина?" and "it's my car" is "эта моя машина".

I like this book a lot. It's called "Russian Step by Step". I'm in 10th grade and will most likely be going to Russia in 2013, so I'm learning as much as I can. Plus 10th grade requires a foreign language anyway. The book is by Natasha Alexandrova.

It is a table of possessive pronouns in Nominative case.


? - whose
I - my
you(single) - your
he/it - his/its
she - her
you(plural) - your

Second, fourth and sixth columns represent possessives in masculine, feminine and neuter correspondingly.

Posessive pronouns in Russian change according to the gender of the word they relate to. It means that in Russian in phrases "my man" and "my woman" word "my" will be different: it will take masculine gender in the first case (мой) and feminine gender in the second case (моя).

Aha, I suspected it was written by a Russian. Is that the book required for your course? If so -- bad choice.

Originally Posted by bitpicker

Therefore "whose car is this?" is "чья эта машина?" and "it's my car" is "эта моя машина".

It should be "это", even though it sounds the same.
But: Эта машина - моя.

Originally Posted by chaika

Aha, I suspected it was written by a Russian. Is that the book required for your course? If so -- bad choice.

It is not required. I've been homeschooled since 4th grade (public schools in Texas are not good). I like the book, it is clear for the most part, except for a couple of places. It has 2 audio tracks with it, translations, Russian to English dictionary and an English to Russian one too. It also has pronunciations.

Why would it be a bad choice? Also, wouldn't the fact that it was written by a native speaker make it even better?

This book is just an introductory course. Junior and Senior year I'll be doing dual enrolment and will be taking Russian college classes.

Here's how чей is explained in Начало, book I, Lesson 2:

WHOSE: ЧЕЙ, ЧЬЯ, ЧЬЁ, ЧЬИ
Чей это стол? Whose table is this?
Чья это книга? Whose book is this?
Чьё это письмо? Whose letter is this?
Чьи это столы? Whose tables are these?
These possessive adjective are the equivalents of whose in English and, like the forms of мой, agree with the nouns they modify.

Exercise: Whose ...?
Using the following list of words, make up ten чей (чья, чьё, чьи) questions:
окно, бабушка, письмо, собака, студент, слово
газета, книга, родители, дедушка, журнал, упражнение

Practice with some plurals. Note that the pronoun это never changes.
EXAMPLE: квартира --> Чья это квартира? Чьи это квартиры?

(I omitted stress marks out of laziness =:^( , but I hope this helps !)

Originally Posted by bellabob

It is not required. I've been homeschooled since 4th grade (public schools in Texas are not good). I like the book, it is clear for the most part, except for a couple of places. It has 2 audio tracks with it, translations, Russian to English dictionary and an English to Russian one too. It also has pronunciations.

Why would it be a bad choice? Also, wouldn't the fact that it was written by a native speaker make it even better?

A lot of people think that non-native speakers are better at explaining how to learn a foreign language than native speakers of that language. Of course there are exceptions, but to the native speaker everything is just natural and "hard to explain why it is like that...". Whereas a foreign person who has learnt the language himself is more aware of what the challenges and confusing bits are.

We can see the same thing here in this forum with English. The best explanations about English as a foreign language are sometimes given by a guy who is German, or by Russians who speak English well.

Russian books are sometimes more "academic" and more concise, whereas American books are more chatty and have more colour and repetition - explaining things in more than one way. Some people (me included) find the American style a bit more accessible. But it's a personal choice. Some people might prefer the no nonsense style of Eastern European school books.

If you like the book you should continue to use it, of course! Then when you have finished it you can shop around a bit and see if you don't want a different style...


Interesting to hear that you are home schooled and that you chose to study Russian!

Originally Posted by Hanna

A lot of people think that non-native speakers are better at explaining how to learn a foreign language than native speakers of that language. Of course there are exceptions, but to the native speaker everything is just natural and "hard to explain why it is like that...". Whereas a foreign person who has learnt the language himself is more aware of what the challenges and confusing bits are.

We can see the same thing here in this forum with English. The best explanations about English as a foreign language are sometimes given by a guy who is German, or by Russians who speak English well.

Russian books are sometimes more "academic" and more concise, whereas American books are more chatty and have more colour and repetition - explaining things in more than one way. Some people (me included) find the American style a bit more accessible. But it's a personal choice. Some people might prefer the no nonsense style of Eastern European school books.

If you like the book you should continue to use it, of course! Then when you have finished it you can shop around a bit and see if you don't want a different style...


Interesting to hear that you are home schooled and that you chose to study Russian!

I've always liked Russia and their language. I think I chose Russian because it's unique and more difficult to learn than others. Plus, everyone does Spanish or French. I like how easy the alphabet was (took about 3 days to learn, but I studied everyday more than once a day).

As for the gender thing, I got it now.

Of course there are exceptions, but to the native speaker everything is just natural and "hard to explain why it is like that...". Whereas a foreign person who has learnt the language himself is more aware of what the challenges and confusing bits are.

That's true. I've always been interested in Russian language, but on this forum I sometimes find things which are difficult for me to explain. I could not imagin that, say, verbs of motion are so difficult.
Although texbooks are written by people whose profession is "Russian as a foreign language" and who have long experiance of teaching Russian to foreigners.

I think it's quite pointless asking a person who learns Russian 'whose car is it'. When I studied German I was confused by the fact that German nouns have sometimes different genders than they are in Russian. I've never come up with a method to find a logic behind that so I chose simply to memorize the difference. Such questions are useful for a Russian kid to understand the grammar, but is not very helpful for a foreigner.

Речь и не идёт о том, чтобы определять род по вопросу, а вопрос - по роду.