GENDER OF NOUNS

Russian has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter (neutral). In the cases of words like “father” these relate to physical gender. In the case of other objects, there is no physical meaning attached to the gender. However you will still need to know the gender because it affects how words are formed. Luckily in Russian it is almost always possible to tell what the gender of a noun by its spelling.
When you use a noun as the subject of a sentence, it will be in its dictionary form. In this form you can easily work out it’s gender. If the noun is in another part of the sentence the ending is changed to suit the case. From the dictionary form of a noun, here is how you can tell what the gender is:

1. Look at the last letter of the word:
2. If it is a consonant, or “й”, the word is masculine.
3. If it is “а” or “я” it is feminine.
4. If it is “о” or “е” it is neuter.
5. If it is a soft sign “ь” then it could be either masculine or feminine.

M	F	N
consonant - й - ь	- а - я - ь	-о -е

 There are very few exceptions to these rules. But there are notable exceptions, this occurs mainly because of physical gender.
Папа - (Daddy, Papa) - Is Masculine
Дядя - (Uncle) - Is Masculine
Дедушка - (Grandfather) - Is Masculine
Мужчина - (Man) - Is Masculine

Exercise: 
Arrange the words in accordance with their genders.

M	F	N
город	улица	кафе

Город, проспект, улица, площадь, магазин; 
Дом, здание, вокзал, станция, музей, ресторан, кафе; 
Поезд, самолет, трамвай, автобус, метро;  
Ручка, книга, журнал, письмо, словарь;  
Россия, Англия, Италия, Америка, Москва, Санкт-Петербург, Париж, Лондон;
Дочь, брат, сестра, сын, отец, мать, дедушка, бабушка,
Офис, компьютер, телефон; документ, паспорт, виза