Parts of the body (голова, нога, плечо)

The Body in Russian

Russian body-part nouns run across all three genders, and several of the commonest are neuter — which is worth noticing early, because neuter nouns take -о/-е in the nominative and behave differently in the plural.

Paired Parts Come in Twos

With два and две you already know the rule: the noun goes into the genitive singular. Body parts are where you will use it most, because so many of them come in pairs.

У меня *две ноги. — I have two legs. У меня два уха.* — I have two ears.

Note две with the feminine нога and два with the neuter ухо.

Two Traps

Ухо has an irregular plural — уши, not ухи. And рот loses its vowel whenever an ending is added: рот, but во рту (in the mouth). Russian calls these fleeting vowels, and лоб does the same thing.

Нога and Рука Cover More Than English

Нога means the whole limb — leg and foot. Рука likewise means arm and hand. Russian simply does not draw the line where English does, so there is no separate everyday word for either half.