Vocabulary List

Additional Notes

In Russian, animals have grammatical gender, just like any other noun; regardless of the animal's actual sex. Adjectives and verbs should match this 'gender'.

For instance, when describing a dog, you may say <<У меня милая собака.>> ("I have a cute dog.") The feminine ending of -ая is used even if this specific dog is a biological male!

Similarily, some animals have a different word to differentiate gender (think cow/bull or lion/lioness in English.)

Some common examples would include...

• кошка (female cat) --> кот (male cat)

• собака (female dog) --> пёс (male dog)

• курица (hen) --> петух (rooster)

• корова (cow) --> бык (bull)