The main grammatical feature that is inherent in almost every part of speech is the category of gender. How many genders do nouns have and how to determine correctly this category this part of speech? You will find answers to these and other questions in the article.
What is the gender of nouns?
Category of gender of nouns in Russian– a grammatical sign indicating the gender (gender) of the object (living creature, phenomenon) called by the noun or its absence. Gender is permanent grammatical feature nouns and is studied in 6th grade.
Features of the category of gender of nouns
There are three types of nouns in the Russian language:
- Male (he). Masculine nouns in the singular I. p. have the endings -a, -я, and zero.
Examples of masculine nouns: dad, uncle, knife, table, hawk.
- Female (she). Feminine nouns in the singular I. p. have the endings -a, -я, and zero.
Examples of feminine nouns: wife, nanny, night, glory, desert.
- Average (it). Neuter nouns in the singular I. p. have endings -о, -е.
Examples of neuter nouns: swamp, gold, sun, lake, jam.
There is also a class of words, the so-called general gender, which, depending on the context, can be used in both masculine and feminine
(boring, sissy, crybaby, smart, greedy).
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How to determine the gender of a noun?
For animate nouns, the gender coincides with the gender of a living creature, a person (father, interlocutor - m.r., girlfriend, gossip - f.r.).
For all nouns, gender can be determined by grammatical form an adjective that agrees with a noun:
- Masculine whose? Which? ( White snow, good advice);
- Feminine. Nouns agree with adjectives that answer questions - whose? which? (fresh newspaper, cheerful friend);
- Neuter gender. Nouns agree with adjectives that answer questions - whose? which? (green field, tall building).
Gender of nouns is a grammatical category, manifested in the ability to be combined with specific forms of compatible words. The category of gender can be expressed semantically (that is, in meaning, only for animate nouns), grammatically and syntactically. Semantically, all nouns are masculine, feminine and neuter. Words indicating animals and male persons are masculine (brother, grandfather, student, goose, rooster, horse); nouns naming animals and female persons (sister, grandmother, student, goose, chicken, horse) - to the feminine gender; animals and persons regardless of gender (bogeyman, monster, face (person), child) - to the neuter gender.
The gender of nouns is expressed grammatically by ending in the nominative case. This category of gender is characteristic of both animate and inanimate inflected nouns. In this case, in addition to the 3 main genera, a general genus is also distinguished. The differences between them are presented in the table:
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter gender | Common gender |
The ending is zero, the stem ends with a hard consonant or -th (chair, hero); The ending is zero, the stem ends with a soft consonant, and in the genitive case the endings are -a, -я (horse - horse, doctor - doctor, ivy - ivy). | The ending -a, -ya (hand, earth), except for words naming male persons (servant, governor) and words with the suffix -in, showing an augmentative subjective assessment (domina, mostina); The ending is zero, the stem ends with a consonant, and in the genitive case the ending is -i (rye - rye, tish - tishi, notebook - notebooks). | Ending -o, -e (grain, sea); The words child, monster, monster, face; 10 on -mya (tribe, time, name, banner, seed, stirrup, udder, crown, burden, flame); Some indeclinable inanimate nouns of foreign origin (tabu, taxi, jury, stew, interview, bra). | The endings -a, -ya, in words naming male and female persons (sleepyhead, grumpy, dirty, bully, stutterer, couch potato, orphan, suck-up, roar, ignorant). |
The gender of nouns can be determined syntactically by the form of the agreed word, which depends on the noun. Thus, participles and adjectives that agree with masculine nouns end in -y, -y, -oh ( beautiful garden, singing boy, fighting soldier); with feminine nouns - in -aya, -aya ( beautiful street, summer time); with neuter nouns - in -oe, -ee (beautiful sky, winter morning).
Also, the gender of nouns is determined using the ending of the predicate, expressed by a verb in the past tense in the subjunctive or indicative mood, or by a participle or Masculine gender - the predicate has a zero ending (the rain has passed, the plan has been completed); feminine - ending -a (the work is finished, the moon has risen); neuter - ending -o (the letter was received, the sun rose).
There are also Most of them belong to the neuter gender (depot, interview and all substantivized indeclinable nouns like “hello”, “hurray”, “yes”, “tomorrow”, “I don’t want”). The following cases are exceptions:
Ga (hectare), coffee, poppies, penalty, suluguni, sirocco, ecu, tornado, shimmy, as well as names of languages (Bengali, Urdu, Suomi, Pashto, Hindi) are masculine;
Avenue, bere, salami, kohlrabi are feminine.
The gender of indeclinable nouns, such as newspapers, magazines, can be determined by the gender of the noun with the meaning of the generic concept (full-flowing Japanese (city) Tokyo, wide (river) Mississippi, published (newspaper) "The Times"). The gender of abbreviations must be determined by the gender of the main word (MGU - masculine - Moscow State University; UN - feminine - United Nations; CIS - neuter gender - Commonwealth of Independent States). It is impossible to establish the gender of nouns that are not used in the singular, but only in the plural, since they do not have a gender category (trousers, pitchforks, pasta, manger).
In this lesson, you will learn what types of nouns are, practice determining the gender of nouns in the singular and plural, and observe the gender endings of nouns. Why is gender constant sign nouns? Which nouns cannot be gendered? Are there common nouns? You can get answers to these questions in class.
Introduction
Our ancestors, the ancient Slavs, once divided all things and beings into three classes - masculine, feminine, and "material" (or "material"). They deified many objects, giving them a feminine or masculine gender.
For example, the word child - material kind among the ancient Slavs. Children at all times did not have the right to own personal property. (V. Volina)
Do you know that there are languages in whichNouns have no gender. These are English, Finnish, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese and others.
There are languages in which nouns only havetwo kinds. These are French, Spanish, Italian.
There are languages in whichthere are many more genders than in our language.
For example, in many languages of the peoples of the Caucasus and Africa there can be up to 40 genders. They are called “classes” there. (N. Betenkova)
Lesson topic: “Gender of nouns. Generic endings nouns."
How to find out the gender of nouns
Read the nouns. Which ones are called men and which ones are women?
Grandfather, mother, sister, father, grandmother, son, brother, granddaughter, uncle, aunt, daughter, great-grandfather, man, woman.
In Russian, nouns are masculine and feminine. What kind of words did we write in each column?
grandfather
dad
Brother
uncle
great grandfather
man
These are masculine words, since you can substitute the word He.
These are feminine words, since you can substitute the word she.
What word can be substituted for these words?
Wheel, hollow, insect, towel - IT. These are neuter words.
Nouns There are masculine, feminine and neuter genders. The gender of nouns is determined by substituting pronouns.
To nouns male you can substitute words he is mine.
To nouns female you can substitute words She is mine.
To nouns neuter you can substitute words it's mine.
Determining the gender of nouns in the plural
If it is necessary to determine the gender of a noun used in the plural, the word is first put in the singular, in the initial form. The initial form of a noun answers the questions who? What?
The cranes have flown away
And the rooks are already far away.
We didn’t have time to look back,
Blizzards stirred up the snow. (Vl. Prikhodko)
Cranes- plural, initial form - who? crane, he, m.r.
Rooks- plural, initial form - who? rook, he, m.r.
Blizzards- plural, beginning form - what? blizzard, she, f.r.
Snow- in units, beginning form - what? snow, he, m.r.
Why is gender a constant feature of nouns?
If a noun is, for example, feminine, can it be masculine or neuter?
Nouns are already born with masculine, feminine or neuter words. They do not change by birth. This is why gender is a constant feature of nouns.
March.
Sketched by the sky
White snowdrifts.
The sun burned them out
Doors and windows.(I. Zagraevskaya)
March- he, m.r.
Sky- it, s.r.
Snowdrifts- plural, beginning form - what? snowdrift, he, m.r.
Sun- it, s.r.
Doors- plural, beginning form - what? door, she, f.r.
Okonta- plural, beginning form - what? window, it, w.r.
Which nouns cannot be gendered?
Eyes, curlers, blinds, mustaches, sleds, skis, skates, vacations.
Eyes- What? eye, it, w.r.
Curlers, blinds
Mustache- What? mustache, he, m.r.
Sled- cannot be used in the singular.
Skis- What? ski, she, f.r.
Skates- What? horse, he, m.r.
Holidays- cannot be used in the singular.
For nouns that do not have a singular form, gender cannot be determined.
For example, trousers, tongs, scissors, day, cream, sawdust, ink, hide and seek, chess, yeast, pincers, twilight.
Common nouns
Interesting nouns: orphan, smart girl, crybaby.
Smart girl- who can be praised with this word, a boy or a girl?
Compare: He was an orphan. She was an orphan.
These nouns, depending on specific circumstances, can act as masculine nouns (He was so smart!), then as feminine nouns(She was so smart!)
These are nouns of a general kind.
Let's pick some more common nouns: ringleader, fidgety, quiet, why, arrogant, sweet tooth.
Gender endings of nouns
What endings can nouns have in the masculine, feminine and neuter gender?
dad A
Slav A
uncle I
You I
daughter A
natures A
Dash A
tet I
s.r.
movements e
fun e
belle e
Borodin O
lace O
canvas O
Complete the diagram: write the endings.
For nouns male more often endings -a, -i, and zero.
For nouns feminine endings -а, -я and zero.
For nouns Neuter endings -о, -е, -е.
(Some nouns ending -i, For example, dit I, flame I, time I ).
What do words have in common - masculine, feminine and neuter nouns?
In nouns masculine and feminine may have the same endings -a, -i, zero.
Is it possible to determine the gender of nouns only by the ending?
Solving a spelling problem at the end of nouns
Jam_, rainbow_, cave_, swamp_, clearing_, knee_, wheel_, patronymic_, lake_.
Knowing the gender of the noun, substituting words it, she, you can solve a spelling problem at the end, write the letter of an unstressed vowel correctly.
Jam_ ono, ending -o,
rainbow_ ona, ending -a,
caves_ ona, ending -a,
swamps_ ono, ending -o,
glade_ ona, ending -a,
knee_, wheel_, patronymic_, lake_ onό, ending -o.
Jam O, rainbow A, caves A, swamps O, glade A, knees O, wheel O, middle names O, lakes O.
How are borrowed words distributed by gender?
In Russian the word Sun- neuter.
IN German word Sun- feminine (“di zonne”).
The English just say "san" ( Sun), without attributing this noun to any of the existing genders.
The French Sun- masculine (“le soleil”).
In Spanish "el sol" Sun- male.
How are words distributed by gender that came from other languages, that is borrowed words?
In russian language Borrowed words retain the gender they had in the foreign language.
This explains the fact that in modern Russian the words piano, coffee, kangaroo belong to the masculine gender;
somersault, chassis, domino- to the neuter gender, and the word shawl- to the feminine gender.
Nouns borrowed from languages that have no gender receive it in Russian: basketball, football(from English) - masculine.
We look for nouns, determine their gender
Check yourself. Find nouns and determine their gender.
Who wrote what?
Once upon a time there was no paper. The first manuscripts appeared on clay tablets. In the east, paper was replaced Ivory. Animal skin - parchment - was often used for writing. IN Ancient Rus' They wrote on birch bark and birch bark.
paper- paper, liquid,
manuscripts- manuscript, journal,
on signs- plate, w.r.,
in the east- east, m.r.,
paper- paper, liquid,
bone- f.r.,
for writing- letter, s.r.,
skin- leather, f.r.,
animals- animal, s.r.,
parchment- m.r.,
in Rus' - Rus, zh.r.,
on the bark- bark, f.r.,
birch bark- birch bark - f.r.
Conclusion
I will remember the feminine gender
And I will say: “She is mine.”
And I will remember the masculine gender
And again I will say: “He is mine.”
The neuter gender is mine!
This is your rule!(E. Semyonova)
In the lesson, you learned that if you need to determine the gender of a noun used in the plural, the word is first put in the singular, in the initial form.
Nouns do not change by gender.
For nouns that do not have a singular form, gender cannot be determined.
Bibliography
- M.S. Soloveychik, N. S. Kuzmenko “To the secrets of our language” Russian language: Textbook. 3rd grade: in 2 parts. - Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2010.
- M.S. Soloveychik, N. S. Kuzmenko “To the secrets of our language” Russian language: Workbook. 3rd grade: in 3 parts. - Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2010.
- T. V. Koreshkova Test tasks in the Russian language. 3rd grade: in 2 parts. - Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2011.
- T.V. Koreshkova Practice! Notebook for independent work in Russian for grade 3: in 2 parts. - Smolensk: Association XXI century, 2011.
- L.V. Mashevskaya, L.V. Danbitskaya Creative tasks in the Russian language. - St. Petersburg: KARO, 2003.
- G.T. Dyachkova Olympiad tasks in Russian. 3-4 grades. - Volgograd: Teacher, 2008.
Homework
- For these nouns, select nouns that are close in meaning. Please indicate gender.
Ring - ...
Strengthening -…
Border - …
Bay - …
Luck - …
A curtain - …
Duty - …
Silence -…
Words for reference: heat, fortress, bay, success, silence, duty, ring, darkness, curtain, boundary. - Read the text. Determine the gender of nouns.
Pretender.
A large gorilla lives in the Prague Zoo. One morning the monkey suddenly fell ill. She refused to eat and moaned. The doctor decided that the animal had eaten too much. The gorilla was given medicine and left. The monkey recovered instantly. During the inspection, she pulled out a key from the caretaker's pocket. She opened the cage for them and began to walk around the zoo.
- Read the text. Find the nouns and write them in 3 columns:
m.r., f. R. , Wed R.
Petya is dreaming.
If only there was soap
It came
In the mornings to my bed
And it would wash me itself -
That would be nice!
If, let's say,
Wizard
Gave me such a textbook
So that he would
I could do it myself
Answer any lesson...
If only I had a pen,
So that I can solve the problem,
Write any dictation... (B. Zakhoder)
- Internet portal Oldskola1.narod.ru ().
- Internet portal School-collection.edu.ru ().
- Internet portal Gramota.ru ().
- Internet portal Russisch-fuer-kinder.de ().
Morphological norms, which regulate the determination of the gender of nouns, contains a whole set of rules that can be divided into five sections for ease of classification and study.
1. Determining the gender of inflected nouns. This is usually the simplest case for determining the gender of a noun, especially if the noun denotes a person whose gender is known to everyone: grandmother (f.b.) - grandfather (m.b.). As for determining the gender of inanimate nouns and animal names, here it is customary to look at the ending: hammer - m.r., fence[a] - zh.r., word[o] - s.r., donkey - m.r., mouse[b] - zh.r.
Despite the relative simplicity of this rule, there are a certain number of exceptions, which we will consider below.
- There are a number of inanimate nouns that have changed gender from feminine to masculine over time. for example, just a couple of centuries ago, all of the following nouns were feminine: shoe, hospital, rail, jackboot, bracelet, poplar, report card.
- Along with this, there is an absolutely mirror phenomenon - nouns that were previously classified as masculine, but now they all require an adjective that answers the question “which one?” Such nouns include cuff, citadel, dachshund, attic.
- There are a number of words that are used equally in both masculine and feminine genders: epaulette - epaulette, pilaster - pilaster, psalter - psalter, spasm - spasma, desman and desman, hangnail - hangnail, dahlia - dahlia, aviary - aviary, banknote - banknote, padespan - padespan, plane tree - plane tree, pancake - pancake. Despite the fact that often one of the forms of these nouns is considered obsolete, their use is not a mistake.
- The gender of some special nouns is difficult, so we'll just list them with their gender. So, feminine nouns: leggings, sneaker, boot, sandal, sneaker, slipper, shoe, boots, reserved seat, sheet, pancake, parcel, mezzanine, veil, dumbbell, rosin, callus, flannel, fathom. Masculine nouns: shampoo, queen, truffle, tulle, calico, piano, roofing felt, guipure, curtain. Neuter nouns: tentacle, stuffed animal, monisto, bast, jam.
2. Determining the gender of indeclinable nouns. A number of rules also apply to this type of noun, each of which has its own exceptions:
- Most of indeclinable inanimate nouns has a neuter gender, regardless of the final vowel or its complete absence: jury, highway, interview, depot.
- Some of the indeclinable inanimate nouns still have a non-neuter gender, which refers to old uniform words or generic concept: Avenue(street - residential district), coffee(coffee or drink - m.r.), sirocco(wind - m.r.), salami(sausage - f.r.), penalty(blow - m.r.), kohlrabi(cabbage - f.r.).
- There are a number of nouns whose gender depends on the person they denote: dandy - m.r., lady - f.r.
- Nouns denoting the name of a profession are usually masculine: attaché, entertainer. But if the profession refers to a female person, then the noun also changes gender to female: elderly doctor Valentina Pavlovna.
- The same applies to the indeclinable names of birds and animals. By default they are masculine: kiwi, hummingbird. But if we are talking about a female, then the noun also changes gender: The female chimpanzee happily jumped around the cage. Exceptions are nouns "Ivasi" And "tsetse" which are feminine (herring and fly).
3. Definition of the type of abbreviations. In the case of abbreviations, it usually plays a role to what gender the main word in the abbreviated phrase belongs to: RF ( Russian Federation), UN (United Nations), RIA (Russian information Agency) . Exception: TASS (m.r.) - Telegraph agency Soviet Union . If the abbreviation has become a common noun and is declined, then the general rules apply to such a word rules for determining the gender of a noun: university - m.r.
4. Determination of the gender of names of indeclinable proper names. The method of determining gender by common noun, which is a generic concept, also applies here: Sochi (city), Mississippi (river), Everest (mountain).
5. Determining the gender of compound nouns. When determining the gender of such words, you need to take as a basis a word that expresses the broader meaning of the noun: butterfly-admiral, telephone-machine, sofa-bed. Moreover, if, as in the case of a noun sofa bed, both concepts are equivalent, then we determine the gender by the first word: armchair-bed, cafe-restaurant.
Gender of nouns
Let's turn to the category of gender of nouns. Do you remember that in Russian the gender of nouns is determined on two grounds: by ending nominative case singular and according to the meaning of the noun, namely, according to the attribution of persons and animals called by this noun to their natural sex. Knowing what gender a particular noun belongs to is necessary in order to correctly change it by case and correctly combine it with other words in a sentence. That is why in dictionaries, indications of gender are a mandatory characteristic of nouns.
It is customary to distinguish five groups of noun words according to their gender:
Masculine nouns;
Feminine nouns;
Neuter nouns;
Common nouns ( crybaby, smart girl, sneak);
Nouns whose gender cannot be determined ( trousers, railings, pliers, jungle, yeast, rouge, debate, vacation, twilight, Alps).
TO masculine include nouns ending in a hard consonant or -i (house, father, balance, bank, barter, credit, tea, region), all nouns ending in -tel (teacher, writer, switch, indicator), names of months (January, February, April, June, July, September, October, November, December), borrowed nouns with stems in -л, -н, -рь (ensemble, shampoo, piano, vestibule, calendar).
TO feminine include nouns ending in -а, -я (wife, earth, idea, game, computer science, migration, firm, function), nouns ending in a soft consonant stem (life, steel, night), as well as nouns ending in a hard hissing (youth, lies, rye, gouache, retouching, nonsense, falsehood, wilderness).
TO neuter include nouns ending in -о, -е (window, business, field, bankruptcy, godlessness, good, wealth, department, religion, application, lending, distribution), as well as all nouns ending in -mya (time, crown, burden, stirrup , udder, name, banner, flame, tribe, seed) and the noun child.
Exception constitute nouns with the ending -а, -я and nouns with a zero ending with a soft consonant, which belong to the masculine gender, as they denote male persons: uncle, youth, Muscovite, cabin boy, bear. The noun apprentice is also masculine.
So, in the modern Russian language there are traditionally three genders of nouns: masculine (envelope, law), feminine (article, bench) and neuter (punishment, crime). As a rule, the initial form of a word already gives an idea of its gender. However, in some cases, determining the gender of nouns is difficult.
1. Errors are common when using indeclinable nouns (usually borrowed from other languages), in combination with adjectives or past tense verbs, due to incorrect compatibility of word forms by gender. Attempts to change such words lead to gross errors like: He came back for his coat. The gender of such words cannot be determined by the ending; it is determined by the meaning of the word, associated in most cases with the concept of animate/inanimate. Most inanimate indeclinable nouns belong to neuter words (foyer, cinema, coat, highway, khaki, pince-nez, boucle). Neuter gender have inanimate names nouns denoting objects (highway, cinema, coat). The exceptions are the words coffee (m.r.), Hindi, Swahili (names of languages - m.r.), avenue (street - zh.r.). TO feminine are animate nouns denoting female persons (madam, miss, lady). TO masculine relate:
Animate nouns denoting male persons (dandy);
Animate nouns with the meaning of a position, title or profession traditionally associated with male labor (entertainer, attache, referee);
Nouns that are names of animals and are used without indicating their gender (kangaroo, chow-chow).
Animate indeclinable nouns can be used both as masculine and feminine words, depending on which gender they denote, i.e. they relate to the gender of a real person or animal. Wed: magnificent maestro; my vis-a-vis – my vis-a-vis; your protégé is your protégé; bright cockatoo – bright cockatoo.
From this general rule there are exceptions:
a) indeclinable nouns that have a generic name in the Russian language correspond to the gender of the latter: salami - f. R. (sausage), kohlrabi - w. R. (cabbage);
b) sometimes the gender of an indeclinable noun is determined by the gender of the word, which is common and inflected for such nouns: Avenue is defined as a feminine noun, since it correlates with the inflected feminine noun street, argot– with a synonymous masculine noun jargon, Suluguni– with a masculine noun (cheese), aloe– m.r. (flower), Hindi– m.r. (language), Capri– m.r. (island), Mississippi- and. R. (river), Tbilisi– m.r. (city);
c) the noun coffee is masculine, although in Lately V colloquial speech it is acceptable to use it as a neuter noun: delicious coffee and tasty coffee, one coffee and one coffee;
d) the names of the letters refer to neuter words: Russian A, capital B; names of sounds – neuter or masculine: unstressed A – unstressed A; Note names are neuter: long mi;
2. If indeclinable nouns name living beings, their gender depends on the gender of the latter ( young - young kangaroo, Durnovo reported - reported, beautiful - beautiful counterpart).
3. Some nouns ending in -а/-я are used in relation to persons of both male and female gender and, as a rule, have an evaluative character. Such nouns are words general kind
(slob, smart girl, crybaby, bully, smart girl, good fellow, greedy, glutton, sleepyhead, sneak).
General nouns denoting males agree with the masculine forms of adjectives, pronouns and past tense or subjunctive verbs, and nouns denoting females agree with the corresponding feminine forms. Wed: He's so smart! She's so smart! My colleague carefully read the documents. My colleague carefully read the documents.
4. Considerable difficulties arise when using nouns denoting persons by occupation or profession. Nouns naming a person by profession or position are used in masculine regardless of the gender of the person in question ( Vasilyeva is a very young professor). Masculine nouns denoting male and female persons doctor, engineer, technologist, banker, assistant, manager, businessman, as a rule, agree with adjectives in the masculine form (i.e., by ending), and with verbs - in the masculine or feminine form, depending on whether the person is male or female (i.e., by meaning). For example: Experienced lawyer Ivanova won the case. - Experienced lawyer Ivanov won the case; The local doctor Smirnova visited the patient. - The local doctor Smirnov visited the patient. In some cases, parallel forms exist in the language ( orderly - nurse, weaver - weaver). Nouns have no opposition by gender seamstress, laundress, manicurist, machinist, typist. Shape type conductress, cashier, director, cook have a colloquial coloring.
5. Some nouns have gender variants. For example, giraffe and giraffe, jackboot and jackboot. Often only one option is recommended as stylistically neutral ( hall - hall (obsolete), hall (simple), gelatin - gelatin (prof.).
6. Nouns used only in the form plural, have no gender ( sleigh, scissors, gates, trousers, glasses).
7. Rod compound nouns type theater-studio, novel-newspaper determined by the generic characteristic of the component that has greater informative significance.
8. The gender of indeclinable geographical names correlates with the gender of the corresponding common noun: Sochi, Tbilisi(city
– m.r.), Ontario(lake - s.r.), Mississippi(river - river).
9. The gender of indeclinable abbreviations is determined by the gender of the main word of the phrase ( SGUA - academy - zh.r., NCFU - university - m.r.). However, if there are no associations of the abbreviation with generating words left in people’s minds, it receives a gender, as ordinary word, according to the formal indicator, and refers to the masculine gender in the case of a zero ending ( Housing office, university, although “office”, “establishment”), to the neuter gender if the ending is -o ( RONO, although "department").
10. In the Russian language, nouns are actively used, which are formed as a result of adding two words. Such compound nouns can be animate or inanimate ( Governor General, female astronaut, conference room). For animate nouns, gender is determined by the word indicating the gender of the person ( female astronaut- and. R.; miracle hero– m.r.). For inanimate nouns, gender is determined by the gender of the first word ( museum-apartment– m.r.; robe dress- Wed R.; amphibious aircraft– m.r.; boarding school- and. R.). If a compound noun contains an indeclinable noun, then the gender is determined by the gender of the inflected word ( cafe-dining room- and. R.; comedy-buff- and. R.; taxi car– m.r.).
11. Gender of nouns formed using suffixes -ish-, -chic-, is determined by the gender of the noun from which these nouns are derived ( voice - voice: m.r.; oar - oar: cf. R.; snake - snakes: female form; brother - little brother: m.b.; letter - letter: cf. R; newspaper - newspaper: zh.r.).