Colloquial Russian

18 Unit 1: Как вас зовýт?

Упражнéние 1 / Exercise 1

Using the following words, ask a question and reply in the affirmative.

For example:

Э�то журна�л? Да, э�то журна�л.

1 самолёт

2 aэропо�рт

3 бизнесмéн

4 университéт

5 гости�ница

6 Кремль

7 Кра�сная пло�щадь

8 мать

9 отéц

10 англича�нин

11 р у�сский

Упражнéние 2 / Exercise 2

Using the following pairs of words, ask a question and reply in the

negative.

For example:

Э�то Москва�? Нет, э�то нe Москва�, э�то Ло�ндон.

1 тури�ст – бизнесмéн 4 гости�ница – университéт

2 студéнт – студéнтка 5 англича�нин – ру�сский

3 Красная пло� �щадь – Тверская у� �лица

Gender of nouns

Russian has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Nouns

denoting male people or animals are masculine and those denoting

female people or animals are feminine.

Unlike English, not all nouns denoting inanimate objects are neuter.

Some are masculine and some are feminine. The gender of a noun in Rus-

sian can generally be determined by its last letter. Nouns ending in a conso-

nant are masculine: журна�л ‘magazine’; а�дрес ‘address’. Nouns ending

in -a or -я are feminine: улица � ‘street’; фами�лия ‘surname’; профéссия

‘profession’. Nouns ending in -о are neuter: у�тро ‘morning’. Some nouns

ending in -ь are feminine, others are masculine, so their gender has to be

learnt: площадь � ‘square’ – feminine; кремль ‘Kremlin’ – masculine.

Note that there are two forms of the words ‘tourist’ and ‘student’:

тури�ст ‘male tourist’; тyри�cтка ‘female tourist’: студéнт ‘male stu-

dent’: студéнткa ‘female student’.