Russian Nouns

Russian Nouns: 

Proper Nouns: Names of people, towns. countries etc.

Common nouns: type or class, e.g. city or dog

Characteristics of Russian Nouns:

• Do not take an article 
• They are animate or inanimate
• They are divided into 3 genders: masculine, feminine or neuter
• Most nouns have 2 number forms: singular or plural. 
• All nouns are declinable, this means they change their ending based on the case used. there are a small number of indeclinable nouns.

No Article

Russian has neither definite (the) or indefinite (a) articles.

This is a book - это книга

The/a book is on the table - книга на столе

Animate and Inanimate Nouns

Animate Nouns:

- people, except some collective nouns such as толпа (crowd), народ (people), молодёжь (youth), армия (army)

- all types of animals, except micro organisms such as микроб (microbe), вирус (virus), бактерия (bacterium), and some collective nouns that describe animals such as скот (cattle), стая (flock)

- Fictitious Creatures, if they can act as 'a human', such as вампир (vampire), чудовище (monster), зомби (zombie), русалка…