Russian Nouns of Common Gender

November 23, 2019 | Tags: Gender in Russian

Did you know that some Russian nouns can be both masculine and feminine? They end in а or я and are declined as if they were feminine, but the adjectives, pronouns, participles and verbs used with them can be masculine and feminine, depending on the situation.  For example, you can say приятный коллега (“a nice colleague”, masculine) and приятная коллега (“a nice colleague”, feminine).

Some more examples:
Грязнуля: unclean person

Жадина: greedy person

Зануда: boring person

Левша: left-handed person, etc.

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