10 Noun Gender
Advertising
Introduction
Nouns refer to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality.
Nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine and neutral.
Form
We have nouns that can have the following genders:
- Masculine, feminine and neutral;
- Masculine and feminine;
- Neutral.
Some nouns may have different words for different genders.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neutral |
|---|---|---|
| boy | girl | child |
| father | mother | parent |
| husband | wife | spouse |
| man | woman | person |
| sir | madame | – |
| son | daughter | – |
| uncle | aunt | – |
| – | – | dog |
| – | – | dolphin |
| – | – | table |
We usually use he (masculine) and she (feminine) for people. We use it (neutral) for things and animals (except for pets and domestic animals when they’re considered to be intelligent and to have feelings, where we can use he or she).
We can use they as a neutral third person singular pronoun when we don’t know or don’t want to reveal someone’s gender.
NOTE: We can distinguish the gender of some neutral nouns by adding male or female.
Example
Words with masculine, feminine and neutral form:
- Our boy likes football. He plays it every day.
- Our girl likes football. She plays it every day.
- Our child likes football. They* play it every day.
*If we don’t want to reveal the gender.
Words with both masculine and feminine form:
- My uncle doesn’t have a telephone. He is lonely.
- My aunt doesn’t have a telephone. She is lonely.
Words with neutral form only:
- The bill is 100 euros. It is expensive.
- The email address is there. It is quite long.
- His mobile phone has broken. We can fix it in the morning.
Use
We use nouns in masculine and feminine genders for men and women and the neutral form for things, animals, events, substance or qualities.
Summary
Nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine, and neutral.
We usually use he and she for people, however we use it for things and animals (we can use he or she for domestic animals).
For example:
— “My father doesn’t eat meat. He is a vegetarian.” = We use he because father is masculine.
— “My mother doesn’t eat meat. She is a vegetarian.” = We use she because mother is feminine.
— “My parents don’t eat meat. They are vegetarian.” = We use they because parents is for both (father and mother).
— “The cat sleeps during the day. It is so cute.” / “The female cat sleeps during the day. She is so cute.” = We can use it or she as it is a domestic animal and female.
Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section. Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.
Exercises
The exercises are not created yet. If you would like to get involve with their creation, be a contributor.
Ambassadors
Open TextBooks are collaborative projects, with people from all over the world bringing their skills and interests to join in the compilation and dissemination of knowledge to everyone and everywhere.
Become an Ambassador and write your textbooks.
Online Teaching
Become a Books4Languages Online tutor & teacher.
More information here about how to be a tutor.
