Russian Word of the Day

The words for male and female in Russian are самец and самка. Самка is an uncomplicated word with genitive plural самок. Самец is an end stressed word:

In English we might say "A rooster is a male chicken" or "A mare is an adult female horse," but we have to rephrase it slightly for the Russian version. In Russian one says «Петух — самец курицы» “A rooster is the male of the chicken.” In other words, the word that follows самец or самка needs to be in the genitive case. Likewise «Кобыла — взрослая самка лошади» “A mare is an adult female of the horse.”