Nouns. Gender

1. A noun in Russian is in the nominative case when it is the subject of the sentence, or when it simply names a thing or a person. In these situations you don't need to put an ending on the noun. The noun looks exactly as it is in a dictionary.
2. Nouns in Russian can be classified as belonging to one of three genders: masculine, faminine, or neuter. All nouns in Russian have gender.
3. In English, gender reflects the sex of the being to which the noun refers. In Russian, gender is a grammatical category.
4. It is very easy to tell the gender of a noun in Russian. The ending of the noun in the dictionary form will most often tell you its gender.
5. Masculine nouns in Russian end in a consonant:
   дом, журнал, парк, Иван
6. Nouns that refer to male beings are masculine, even if they don't end in a consonant:
   папа, дядя, Ваня,
7. Feminine nouns in Russian end in the vowels -а or -я:
   книга, газета, квартира, Нина, Анна, тётя
8. Some feminine nouns end in a soft sign (ь):
   мать, дочь, кровать
9. Nouns that refer to females are feminine, even if they don't end in one of these two letters.
10. Neuter nouns in Russian end in -o or -e:
    письмо, море