Russian Weird Fact #1792: The Gender Of Interrogative Pronouns

Russian Weird Fact #1792: The Gender of Interrogative Pronouns

Did you know that in Russian, the words что (what) and кто (who) have genders? Что is neuter, and кто is masculine. This means you should match adjectives and participles to their gender:

Что это такое? (What is this?) — такое agrees with что (neuter).

Что тебе нужно? (What do you need?) — нужно is in the neuter form.

For кто, use the masculine form:

Кто тебе нужен? (Who do you need?) — нужен matches кто (masculine).

Here's a fun twist: Кто can also match the gender of the person you're referring to:

Кто это такой? (Who is he?)

Кто это такая? (Who is she?)

But in most questions, кто sticks to masculine:

Кто это сделал? (Who did this?) — even if all suspects are female.

Кто к нам пришёл? (Who has come to see us?) — even if you clearly hear a woman’s voice.

When что and кто function as conjunctions, they retain their gender:

Я знаю, кто к нам пришёл — наша бабушка! (I know who came to see us — our grandma!) Пришёл is masculine, because кто is masculine.

Я знаю, что тебе нужно — мою коллекцию фильмов! (I know what you need — my movie collection!) Нужно agrees with что (neuter).

That’s your random grammar lesson for today!

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