Tuesday 10 August 2010

Gender - grammar

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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