A bunch of beginner questions :)

[scriabingirl.livejournal.com]

Hello :) My name is Ajda, I come from Slovenia and I've been learning Russian (by myself) for three months now.

Recently I got a book called Oxford: take off in Russian and I just finished the first chapter. I'd be glad if someone could explain to me few things that still aren't clear to me :)

1) there is no rule for determining the gender of nouns ending with и, e. g. хобби, яанки... my Slavic ear tells me that they're masculine, but is it a rule? what about мать? I guess it's feminine, but is it only an exception or what?

2) what is the rule for plurals of feminine nouns ending in я, e. g. тетя?

3) is щи both singular and plural? If not, what's the other form?

4) what are all the six forms of мочь? My Slavic ear again tells me that it's irregular, but the book doesn't list it... (I know that it's a stupid question, but I don't know where to look up such things... a link would also be very much appreciated).

Thank you for your help,

Ajda

Comments

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

4. MogU, MOzhesh, mOzhet, mOzhem, mOzhete, mOgut. I think I got the accent stress right (someone check me?)

[stephan-nn.livejournal.com]

я могу
ты можешь
он/она/оно может

мы можем
вы можете
они могут

All correct but don't forget about "ь" in "можешь" :)

[scriabingirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[kefir-na-noch.livejournal.com]

past example МОГ is for single musculine.

[stephan-nn.livejournal.com]

мог - единственное число, мужской род
могла - единственное число, женский род
могло - единственное число, средний род
могли - множественное число

[scriabingirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

1. Those are foreign imports. Hard to tell with those, but most are neuter (metro, kino, etc.) I don't know about the ones you mention, I'm not a native speaker.

мать is feminine; most words that end in ь are feminine. There are exceptions of course!

2. я goes to и in the feminine plural.

[stephan-nn.livejournal.com]

Слова второго склонение, заканчивающиеся на "ь" - мужского рода (конь, день, автомобиль)
Слова третьего склонения, заканчивающиеся на "ь" - женского рода.
Кстати, если заканчивается на "шь" и "чь" - всегда женского.

[nadyezhda.livejournal.com]

That last rule is good to know! I like it when things are "always" one thing or another...

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

1) хобби is neuter, янки is masculine. In fact, most are neuter except those that denote people or animals. And кофе is masculine, which is the only real exception.

Мать and дочь are slightly irregular (there is an inset suffix -ер-: in declension: матерью, дочерям); otherwise, there's a whole paradigm of feminine nouns ending in the soft mark, historically corresponding, I think (quick Wikipedia check), to the second feminine declension in Slovene (perut).

2) тетя — тети, земля — земли, etc.

3) it's a pluralia tantum, like "scissors" for example.

4) могу, можешь, может, можем, можете, могут.

[scriabingirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much :)

a useful link

[olegmmiller.livejournal.com]

multitran.ru (http://www.multitran.ru/c/m.exe?L1=2&L2=1&HL=2&a=ShowMorphology&q=%EC%EE%F7%FC) has been very helpful to me in many different ways. This form will tell you all the forms of the word you put into the search. Beware tho that you are looking at the correct word, as the link above lists two morphologies for "мочь" one is the verb you are looking for and the other means (according to multitran) "be in a position".

Re: a useful link

[scriabingirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much :)

[nemica.livejournal.com]

Well, as мать and тетя mean womens they are feminine, could there be any other choice? :)

[scriabingirl.livejournal.com]

I knew that, but I was looking for a rule that would tell me so :)

[nemica.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I have only vague idea about rules of Russian. Shame on me. But I'm good in writing. :)

[sushchestvo.livejournal.com]

All nouns ending in a cosonant + Ь are feminine. E.g., боль - pain, площадь - square etc. There is one exception - the word 'путь' ('way'), it's masculine. Maybe some borrowings don't stick to this rule but I can't recall them right now.

[scriabingirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

[kalina-n.livejournal.com]

"All nouns ending in a cosonant + Ь are feminine."
No, there is a great number of exceptions:
король(king), стиль (style), штиль (calm), конь (horse), пароль (password), профиль (profile), etc. - all these words are masculin. In fact, I' m not shure that you can determine the gender of nouns according to the ending...

[scriabingirl.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe not with Ь, but you can determine it with some other endings, for example A. There are some exceptions (the words for uncle, grandpa and masculine diminutive names, e.g. Kolya), but generally, it's a valid rule :)