Masculine gender

Чоловічий рід

• Masculine nouns typically end in consonants or -й.
• Recognizing masculine gender is necessary because it shapes how the different parts of speech interact, making sentences coherent and intelligible.

An extension of: 01.2n - Grammatical Gender

Words that end in consonants or -й.

• стіл (table)
• зошит (notebook)
• чай (tea)

Technically, the base form of a masculine word ending in a consonant or -й has "zero ending", or a "null ending". This means that the nominative singular form of the word has no vowel on the end, it is the root word itself.

Masculine and proper names ending in -о.

• Сашко (Diminutive form of Олександр, Alexander)
• Дніпро (the Dnipro river)

Words that denote boys or men.

• хлопець (boy)
• чоловік (man, husband)
• тато (dad)
• українець (Ukrainian man)
• журналіст (male journalist)

Words that end in a soft sign.

• стілець (chair)
• день (day)
• учень (student, pupil)

Not all nouns ending in a soft sign are masculine; some are feminine. For words where gender isn't immediately clear I suggest making a note of it on your flashcard to help make it stick.

Exceptions to the rules above include:

Exceptions for the masculine gender mostly fall into the two categories above: masculine names and words that denote boys or men.