Thread: What are the gender of these characters?

I am just getting started and trying to master some of the spelling rules.

I am curious if anyone can tell me the gender of the following letters, or rather the gender of the noun ending in these letters, I do not see them listed in my study book, so Im thinking they maybe don't have a gender of just don't show up at end of Russian words?
Ё,У, Э, Ю and the hard sign

Also the section on what ending to use on nouns to make them plural, there are no rules for words ending in those same letters.? I am assuming this is also because these letters do not show up at end of words and are not applicable. Please correct me if I am mistaken.
Thanks.

SharkBeach, I'm sure you won't see any gender of these letters and all left ones too because letters don't have gender
The letters Ё, Э, and the hard sign does not show up at the end of modern Russian words (exepting some adopted words that does for instanse сакэ).
The letters У, Ю usually marks the declensional endings of nouns in dative case (e.g. стол - [к] столу). In the plural form those endings change to -АМ, ЯМ, following the previous example it would be: к столу - к столам

Can't think of any noun that ends in Ё or Ю (in Nom. case). I think they don't exist.
Also there are very few words ending in Э or У, and they are of foreign origin.

Words ending in Э are usually neutral: сакэ, баррэ.
Words ending in У can have different genders:
эму ("emu") - generally masculine (but when talking about a female bird it can be used as feminine)
паспарту ("passe-partout") - neutral
etc.

But these words regardless of their gender are indeclinable (i.e. they always retain their Nominative form).

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Can't think of any noun that ends in Ё or Ю (in Nom. case). I think they don't exist.

остриё
витьё
бритьё
гнильё

Wildcard search in Lingvo works wonders.

меню (с)
ревю (с)
барбекю (с)
интервью (с)
дежа-вю (с)
инженю (ж)
кешью (м)

Ok, guys.
There are such words, I just couldn't remember any after sleepless night.

SharkBeach, what grammar book are you using? From your presentation I think you might consider another one. I think there is a discussion here somewhere about the various books people are using to study Russian.

Originally Posted by Zubr

остриё
витьё
бритьё
гнильё

all neutral, inanimate
single:
N остриё
G острия
D острию
A остриё
I остриём
P об острие

plural:
N острия
G остриёв
D остриям
A острия
I остриями
P об остриях

Originally Posted by chaika

SharkBeach, what grammar book are you using? From your presentation I think you might consider another one. I think there is a discussion here somewhere about the various books people are using to study Russian.

Its A book I picked up as a kid and just now got into it. From the 80's, "learning Russian the fast and fun way"
It had a section on both how to change nouns from singular to plural ( eg, nouns ending in К, add И, nouns ending in o, replace with A) and also noun genders based on its ending (eg, noun ending k is masculine , ending in A is feminine, which would determine what kind of "it" I would use to describe a noun, OH TAM, OHA TAM, OHO TAM, OHИ TAM) but with the letters I mentioned before, it did not include them or say why they were left out.

Im just starting out and trying to get the basic rules down, don't want to pick up any bad habits early on.

Thanks for your responses, I figured it must be because they were not used or uncommon.

Originally Posted by alexone

SharkBeach, I'm sure you won't see any gender of these letters and all left ones too because letters don't have gender
The letters Ё, Э, and the hard sign does not show up at the end of modern Russian words (exepting some adopted words that does for instanse сакэ).
The letters У, Ю usually marks the declensional endings of nouns in dative case (e.g. стол - [к] столу). In the plural form those endings change to -АМ, ЯМ, following the previous example it would be: к столу - к столам

Thank you

Yes, I thought it might be something like that. But you really should get a grammar like the ones they use in schools. Nachalo and Golosa are two that have been well received. They have accompanying workbook, CDs, and even videos I think. These grammars will guide you in an orderly way toward mastery of the language.

Originally Posted by chaika

Yes, I thought it might be something like that. But you really should get a grammar like the ones they use in schools. Nachalo and Golosa are two that have been well received. They have accompanying workbook, CDs, and even videos I think. These grammars will guide you in an orderly way toward mastery of the language.

I will take a look at those, thanks.