Genitive plural of soft nouns (-ей)

Nouns Ending in a Soft Sign (-ь)

For masculine and feminine nouns ending in a soft sign (-ь), forming the genitive plural is straightforward: replace -ь with -ей.

This rule applies to many animals and natural features, whether masculine (зверь, медведь) or feminine (лошадь).

At the zoo we saw a lot of animals.
В зоопарке мы видели много зверей.
He is photographing five bears.
Он фотографирует пять медведей.
My grandfather has many horses.
У моего дедушки много лошадей.

Neuter Nouns Ending in -е

Some neuter nouns that end in -е, such as поле (field), also take the -ей ending in the genitive plural. Drop the -е and add -ей.

Near the city there are many fields.
Около города много полей.

Feminine Nouns Ending in -я

While most feminine nouns ending in -я take a "zero ending" (dropping the final vowel), a few ending in a stressed -я take -ей. A common example is свинья (pig), which becomes свиней.

Has anyone seen the pigs?
Кто-нибудь видел свиней?
My uncle bought ten pigs.
Мой дядя купил десять свиней.

Quantities and Negation

Remember that the genitive plural is required after quantifiers like много (a lot) and мало (few), numbers five and above, and the negative word нет (there is no / there are no).

There are no deer in the park.
В парке нет оленей.
There are many pigeons in the square.
На площади много голубей.
There are few steppes in this country.
В этой стране мало степей.
We saw eight swans on the river.
На реке мы видели восемь лебедей.
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