Thread: Russian Gender

Hi

I understand there are genders in Russian, masculine, feminine and neuter and how adjectives change their endings depending on the noun, for example, good dog becomes:
Хорошая собака

So I was wondering, would you do this when talking to a male or female? Like when talking to a man would I ask:"вы русский?" and when talking to a woman would I say "вы русская ?"

If this is the case, are there any other examples someone could post for me? Thanks a lot.

Yes. For example on sites giving basic compliments, you'll see that when referring to a woman, the feminine forms are used. Shows up even more often with short adjectives.

Вы is always construed as a plural, even when referring to one person.

Вы - русский. You are a Russian. Essentially, the word человек is implied.
Вы - русские. You are Russian. (or Y'all are Russian)

Two caveats:
>Certain words function differently with gender alignment. There's a thread on this site somewhere about it, I wish I could find it. What I mean is that, 99% percent of the time, the gender you see on the noun (by spelling essentially) is all encompassing. But with certain words referring to people, дядя (uncle, uncle-like friend) for example, you would visually expect it to be feminine, but it is masculine. (still declines with feminine patterns)

I believe there are certain words, whose gender corresponds to what real object is being referred to, as well. That might be something like a word for an occupation and person, that doesn't have a feminine counterpart. That's uncommon since most every noun like this in Russian easily acquires an ending.

The word кофе annoys me. It looks neuter [ought be neuter, ought have a declension], but is actually masculine, by the books that is. Interestingly enough, you can see this EVIL LIE falling apart. It's a fairly new word, but as time has gone on people have more and more pushed it to fit the systems [and start making sense]-- people sometimes consider it neuter, and sometimes add case endings to it.
Anyway, with indeclinable nouns (usually ending in a strange vowel like и), the gender varies word to word.


>I've heard, though I was pretty much lost in contextlessness, what seemed to be a female refer to herself with a masculine adjective. It was some simple self-describing sentence like "I'm tall." This happened on a livestream, and soon after the chat had a couple of what I assume to be grammarly-inclined people correct her. Context is needed to know exactly what kind of mistake it was, and how.

Rules for the Gender | Russian language grammar on RussianLearn.com
This talks about those funky sub categories I touched on.

Ah ok, thanks so much for the help, I just had a few more questions about this.

So for example, if someone asked me how I was, would I say:
"я хорошая", or "я хорошо"(Im female)

and if the above is correct, would it be correct to say:
Я громкая for "I'm loud"? or do I still have to say "я громкий"?

Sorry for all these questions, and thanks in advance

If affecting yourself with and adjective, feminine form would be used, whether short form or long form.

When it comes to asking how you are, there's a bit more detail to pinpoint
я хорошая - I'm good (of a person, as in quality of character or something)

The answer to как is, roughly speaking, an adverb [like хорошо], whereas какой would ask for an adjective.

-Привет! Как дела?
-Хорошо! Как ты?
-Нормально.

or

-Привет! Как ты?
-Нормально, вчера выписался из больницы.

Think of it as asking "How are things (going)?", with the word going being omitted, so the answer is "(going) well!"
"хороши!" is not correct

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXVTnCVnlJU

The extent to which this rule holds up is fairly questionable, but the functional idea behind short adjectives is:
Using a long adjective implies that there is a noun being modified by the adjective, and that there's a verb floating out there somewhere; whereas short adjective tell you that the verb for the sentence *is* itself in the presence of that short adjective. Frees up word order even more.

"Чтобы дикий этот смысл простичь и охватить, надо много жизней проволочить в лагерях — в тех самых, где и один срок нельзя дотянуть без льготы, ибо изобретены лагеря — на истребление." А И Солженицын - Гулаг Архипелаг

ибо изобретены лагеря — на истребление.
, for the camps were developed - for extermination.

If the adjective had been long, it would have come out:
, for the developed camps were for extermination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7zMEL_ig4Y

"Я, как призрак, удивительно хорош."

Yep I think I got it now, saying "good" to a question such as "How are you" in Russian, it has to be kept the same(хорошо) and its an adverb, but with adjectives you change depending on your personal gender or whoever you're referring to, so talking to a man I would say:
"ты красивый "
to say "You are beautiful, but to a woman I would say:
"ты красивая"

This sound about right? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding something >.<

Sounds all good!

Got it, thanks so much =)