Thursday, June 3, 2010

GENDER 1

Definition: A grammatical category in which a noun, pronoun, article and adjective is masculine, feminine or neuter. Genders in English are extremely simple, and in any case the gender of a noun only affects its pronoun and possessive adjective.

For example:

  • Mary is a doctor. She is a doctor
  • Peter is a doctor. He is a doctor.

In nouns
In general there is no distinction between masculine, feminine and neuter in English nouns. However, gender is sometimes shown by different forms or different words.

Different words:

Masculine Feminine

man
father
uncle
boy
husband

woman
mother
aunt
girl
wife

Different forms:

Masculine Feminine

actor
prince
hero
waiter
widower

actress
princess
heroine
waitress
widow

Some nouns can be used for either a masculine or a feminine subject:

cousin

teenager

teacher

doctor

cook

student

parent

friend

relation

colleague

partner

leader

For example

  • Arthur is my teacher. He is my teacher.
  • Jane is my teacher. She is my teacher.

It is possible to make the distinction by adding the words "male" or "female".

For example

  • a male teacher, a female teacher, etc.

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