Левша, правша
The words левша and правша mean leftie (a left-handed person) and rightie (a right-handed person) respectively. The former declines like this:
| Sing | Pl | |
| Nom | левша | левши |
| Acc | левшу | левшей |
| Gen | левши | левшей |
| Pre | левше | левшах |
| Dat | левше | левшам |
| Ins | левшой | левшами |
The word правша declines precisely the same way. A few example sentences:
| Если вы правша, то большую часть пищи вы пережёвываете на правой стороне челюсти, и наоборот, если вы левша, то на левой. (source) | If you are right-handed, then you chew the majority of your food on the right side of your mouth, and conversely if you are left-handed, then [you chew] on the left side. |
| Исследования указывают, что левшами чаще являются мужчины чем женщины. (Russian Wikipedia) | Research shows that men are left-handed more often than women. |
| Почему левши зарабатывают больше правшей? | Why do lefties earn more than righties? |
| Электросудорожная терапия превращает правшей в левшей. | Electroshock therapy turns righies into lefties. |
Though every beginning student of Russian knows that there are masculine nouns and feminine nouns, not every student knows that there are common gender nouns as well, and among them are левша and правша. A common gender noun is one that takes masculine adjectives if referring to a man and feminine adjectives if referring to a woman. Thus one could theoretically say:
| Юлия — легкомысленная левша. | Julie is an air-headed leftie. |
| Иван — нахальный левша. | John is a cocky leftie. |
Simlarly if a common gender noun is the subject of a sentence, it induces masculine agreement in the verb if the noun refers to a man and feminine agreement if the noun refers to a woman. Thus, though not a common thing to say, one could theoretically say:
| В комнату вошла правша. | A right-handed woman entered the room. |
| В комнату вошёл правша. | A right-handed man entered the room. |
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