B. Gender of Russian nouns

All Russian nouns belong to one of three grammatical genders: masculine, neuter or feminine. Do not confuse gender with sex; the word for table in Russian is a masculine gender noun, but there's nothing male about the object; book in Russian is a feminine gender noun, but there's nothing inherently female about it. However, nouns referring to male beings will (usually) be masculine gender; those referring to female beings will be feminine gender.

In most cases, the gender of the noun can be determined by its ending. The table below illustrates this:

MASCULINENEUTERFEMININE
end in a consonant or-bend in -о or -еend in -а, -я or -ь

паспорт

автомобиль

портфель

озеро

море

пальто

виза

фамилия

Сибирь

ононоона