Russian absorbs foreign words at a tremendous rate — from French and German in the 19th century to a flood of English tech and business vocabulary today — and every one of them has to be assigned a gender, because gender controls all the agreement around it. For most loans this is painless: a loanword that declines simply takes its gender from its ending, exactly like a native noun. The interesting cases are the ones that don't decline — indeclinable loans like метро́ and кафе́ — and acronyms, which behave according to a rule that surprises English speakers: their gender comes not from how they look or sound, but from the noun they stand for. This page sorts out all three groups.
Declinable borrowings: gender from the ending
If a borrowed noun has been fully naturalized so that it declines through the cases like a native word, you predict its gender exactly as you would for any Russian noun, from the nominative-singular ending (the rule explained on nouns/gender/overview).
| Loanword | Ending | Gender | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| компью́тер | consonant | masculine | computer |
| ма́ркетинг | consonant | masculine | marketing |
| сайт | consonant | masculine | (web)site |
| систе́ма | -а | feminine | system |
| пи́цца | -а | feminine | pizza |
| пробле́ма | -а | feminine | problem |
Мой ста́рый компью́тер сно́ва зави́с.
My old computer has frozen again. — компью́тер ends in a consonant → masculine, with masculine agreement мой ста́рый.
Э́то о́чень серьёзная пробле́ма.
That's a very serious problem. — пробле́ма ends in -а → feminine (серьёзная).
Indeclinable inanimate loans: default to NEUTER
Here is the rule that catches English speakers. A large class of borrowings ending in a vowel that Russian can't comfortably decline — words like метро́, такси́, кафе́ — are indeclinable: they keep one fixed form in every case. (Why they don't decline, and the full list, is on nouns/number/indeclinable-nouns.) For these, the default gender of an inanimate noun is neuter — no matter what gender the word had in its source language, and no matter what your intuition says.
| Loanword | Meaning | Gender |
|---|---|---|
| метро́ | metro/subway | neuter |
| такси́ | taxi | neuter |
| кафе́ | café | neuter |
| пальто́ | coat | neuter |
| ра́дио | radio | neuter |
| меню́ | menu | neuter |
| интервью́ | interview | neuter |
The proof, as always, is agreement: the adjectives and past-tense verbs around these words come out neuter, even though the noun itself never changes shape.
Здесь откры́лось но́вое уютное кафе́.
A nice new café has opened here. — но́вое and уютное are neuter, agreeing with кафе́ (neuter), though кафе́ itself never declines.
Моско́вское метро́ о́чень глубо́кое.
The Moscow metro is very deep. — моско́вское and глубо́кое are neuter; метро́ is a neuter indeclinable.
Я купи́л тёплое пальто́ на зи́му.
I bought a warm coat for the winter. — тёплое is neuter; пальто́ is neuter despite the masculine French paletot.
Такси́ уже́ прие́хало.
The taxi has already arrived. — the past-tense verb прие́хало is neuter, agreeing with такси́.
The exceptions you must memorize
A few indeclinable loans break the neuter default, and the most famous is ко́фе.
- ко́фе (coffee) — traditionally masculine (горя́чий ко́фе, "hot coffee"). This is a celebrated prescriptive sticking point: the word ends in -е, which looks neuter, and for over a century careful speakers have insisted on masculine. Today the neuter (горя́чее ко́фе) is widely heard and, since 2009, officially tolerated as colloquial — but masculine remains the prestige norm, and using neuter in a formal or educated setting can still draw a frown.
- са́льто (somersault) — neuter (краси́вое са́льто), following the default.
- A small set of others lean masculine by association with a "covert" head noun: пена́льти (penalty kick) is often masculine because it is felt as a kind of уда́р (a strike, masculine); евро (the euro) is usually masculine by analogy with рубль and до́ллар.
Оди́н горя́чий ко́фе, пожа́луйста.
One hot coffee, please. — the prestige norm: ко́фе is masculine, so горя́чий, not горя́чее.
Он сде́лал краси́вое са́льто.
He did a beautiful somersault. — са́льто is neuter (краси́вое), following the regular default for vowel-final loans.
Indeclinable animate loans: gender by natural sex
When an indeclinable loan names a living being, the neuter default is overridden by the same natural-gender principle that governs па́па and дя́дя: the gender follows the real-world sex (or, for animals, the default sex assumption).
| Loanword | Meaning | Gender | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| ле́ди | lady | feminine | refers to a woman |
| ма́эстро | maestro | masculine | refers to a man |
| атташе́ | attaché | masculine | typically a man |
| кенгуру́ | kangaroo | masculine (default) | animal → masculine by default |
| ко́лли | collie | masculine or feminine | by the dog's sex |
На сце́ну вы́шел изве́стный ма́эстро.
The famous maestro came on stage. — изве́стный and вы́шел are masculine: ма́эстро names a man.
Кенгуру́ пры́гнул че́рез забо́р.
The kangaroo jumped over the fence. — пры́гнул is masculine; an animal loan defaults to masculine unless the female is specifically meant.
Э́та ле́ди прие́хала из Ло́ндона.
This lady came from London. — э́та and прие́хала are feminine: ле́ди names a woman.
Acronyms: gender from the head noun
This is the rule that genuinely surprises learners. A Russian acronym (initialism) takes the gender of the main noun in its full expansion — the grammatical head — not from how the letters look or sound. So to make an acronym agree correctly, you have to know what it stands for.
| Acronym | Stands for | Head noun | Gender |
|---|---|---|---|
| МГУ | Моско́вский госуда́рственный университе́т | университе́т (m.) | masculine |
| ООН | Организа́ция Объединённых На́ций | организа́ция (f.) | feminine |
| США | Соединённые Шта́ты Аме́рики | Шта́ты (pl.) | plural |
| СССР | Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик | сою́з (m.) | masculine |
| ЕС | Европе́йский сою́з | сою́з (m.) | masculine |
МГУ был основан в 1755 году́.
Moscow State University was founded in 1755. — был is masculine because the head noun университе́т is masculine, even though МГУ ends in a vowel sound.
ООН при́няла но́вую резолю́цию.
The UN adopted a new resolution. — при́няла is feminine because the head noun is организа́ция (feminine).
США объяви́ли о но́вых са́нкциях.
The USA announced new sanctions. — объяви́ли is plural because the head noun is Шта́ты (the States, plural).
Note that some acronyms have been fully nativized and now decline like ordinary nouns based on their shape, abandoning the head-noun rule. Вуз ("institute of higher education", from вы́сшее уче́бное заведе́ние) is written lowercase, declines (в вузе́), and is masculine by its consonant ending. Loud, pronounceable acronyms tend to drift into this pattern over time.
A note on pronunciation: hard consonant before е
Many loanwords keep a "hard" consonant before the letter е, against the normal Russian rule that е softens the preceding consonant — so те́мп is said "temp" (hard т), not "tyemp". This is a pronunciation fact, not a gender one, but it is a hallmark of recent borrowings and is treated fully on pronunciation/loanwords-and-foreign-sounds.
Common Mistakes
❌ Я купи́л тёплый пальто́.
Incorrect — пальто́ is a neuter indeclinable loan; the adjective must be neuter тёплое, not masculine тёплый.
✅ Я купи́л тёплое пальто́.
I bought a warm coat. — neuter agreement for the neuter loan.
❌ Здесь откры́лся но́вый кафе́.
Incorrect — кафе́ is neuter; it must be но́вое кафе́ откры́лось, not masculine.
✅ Здесь откры́лось но́вое кафе́.
A new café has opened here. — neuter agreement throughout.
❌ МГУ была́ основана в 1755 году́.
Incorrect — МГУ is masculine (head noun университе́т), so был основан, not the feminine была́ основана.
✅ МГУ был осно́ван в 1755 году́.
MSU was founded in 1755. — masculine agreement from the head noun.
❌ Treating ко́фе as neuter in formal writing: чёрное ко́фе.
Risky in formal register — the prestige norm is masculine чёрный ко́фе; neuter is only tolerated colloquially.
✅ Чёрный ко́фе без са́хара, пожа́луйста.
Black coffee with no sugar, please. — masculine, the standard educated form.
❌ Assuming all vowel-final loans are masculine, like in the source language.
Incorrect — indeclinable inanimate loans default to NEUTER (метро́, такси́, ра́дио), ignoring source-language gender.
✅ Моско́вское метро́, жёлтое такси́, ста́рое ра́дио.
The Moscow metro, a yellow taxi, an old radio. — all neuter.
Key Takeaways
- Declinable loans take gender from their ending, like native nouns: компью́тер, сайт, ма́ркетинг → masculine; систе́ма, пи́цца → feminine. Modern English borrowings ending in a consonant are overwhelmingly masculine.
- Indeclinable inanimate loans default to neuter regardless of source-language gender: метро́, такси́, кафе́, пальто́, ра́дио are all neuter (вку́сное кафе́, ста́рое метро́).
- Memorized exceptions: ко́фе is traditionally masculine (a famous prescriptive issue; neuter is now tolerated colloquially); са́льто is neuter.
- Indeclinable animate loans take gender by natural sex: ле́ди (f.), ма́эстро (m.); animals default to masculine (кенгуру́).
- Acronyms inherit the gender of their expanded head noun, not their surface shape: МГУ is masculine (университе́т), ООН feminine (организа́ция), США plural (Шта́ты) — so you must know the expansion to agree correctly.
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- Grammatical Gender: Masculine, Feminine, NeuterA1 — Every Russian noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter — and unlike most gendered languages, you can predict the gender from the nominative-singular ending about 95% of the time: a hard consonant or -й is masculine, -а/-я is feminine, -о/-е is neuter; the awkward class is nouns in -ь, which can be either gender and must be learned individually; gender governs adjective and past-tense agreement, so it travels with the noun as an inseparable label.
- Indeclinable NounsB1 — A small but high-frequency set of Russian nouns — mostly foreign borrowings ending in a vowel, like метро́, кафе́, такси́, пальто́, кино́ — that never change form for case or number; they still carry gender for agreement, but the grammar around them is shown only by adjectives, verbs, and context, never by the noun itself.
- Geographical Names and Their DeclensionB2 — Most foreign place names ending in a consonant decline like Russian masculine nouns (в Ло́ндоне, из Берли́на, под Москво́й), while those ending in a vowel stay frozen (в Чика́го, в То́кио, в Перу́) — and native -ово/-ино names traditionally declined (в Бородине́) are now often left undeclined colloquially, a live usage split that affects every 'in/to/from [city]' sentence.
- Pronouncing Loanwords and NamesB2 — How Russian adapts foreign words and names — the unpredictable hard consonant before е in recent loans (компью́тер, моде́ль, те́ннис), the rendering of foreign w/h/th, unreduced о in some borrowings, and stress that preserves or shifts the source.
- Spotting a Noun's Gender at a GlanceA1 — A fast, practical heuristic for assigning gender to a new Russian noun in your first weeks: glance at the last letter — consonant or -й is masculine, -а/-я is feminine, -о/-е is neuter — so you can agree adjectives and pronouns from day one without memorizing gender word by word.