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- Topic: Russian >
- "Доброе утро, Анна."
20 Comments
2738
You have three genders in Russian - masculin (Добрый), feminine (до́брая) and neuter (до́брое). And word " утро" is neuter.
30
I don't know how to explain "ый" by typing it, but the neuter and feminine genders are pronounced as they are spelled. "до́брое" = "DO-brah-yeh" and "до́брая" = "DO-brah-yah". There's also "Доброй", which is used when saying "goodnight" to someone, before going to bed. "Доброй ночи" "DO-bry nochi".
Добрая and доброе are pronounced the same in the standard accent (or, at least, very, very close).
A voice talent doing station announcements may hypercorrect a tiny bit to make -ое different from -ая but this effect is rather subtle (it does not sound natural when the difference is large). I think, I heard an announcer making an unstressed -е of the ending more distinct, which lets the listener know that the station is, say, Солнечное, not Солнечная.
- on the other hand, it is wise to consult the route map on the wall anyway... And I am sure stations that only differ in gender are nearly non-existent. I see no reason why would one have them on the same line.
30
Once you understand the basics, you be able to identify the gender of the word by which letter(s) it ends with.
а/я are typical feminine endings (though there are a few masculine and common gender nouns, too)
о/е are common for neuter nouns. Neuter nouns also include ten words that end in -мя. Nouns of foreign origin that end in о/е are indeclinable (I am talking about direct loanwords).
consonant endings are typical for masculine nouns. Consonants include Й.
A word ending in a consonant followed by a soft sign can be either feminine or masculine. About two thirds are feminine but there are many masculine, too, even among the common words (e.g., день, огонь, конь, гусь, контроль, словарь, учитель, родитель)
A word ending in anything else is indeclinable. The gender of an indeclinable noun can be neuter (e.g. метро, кафе), it can be determined by the gender of a person (Дженни is a girl), by the umbrella term for such objects (Огайо is a штат, so it's masculine) or simply by tradition (портфолио can be neuter—or masculine for no sane reason). Looking it up in the dictionaty is advised, especially if the word is popular.