Gender of Nouns

THERE ARE FOUR GENDER OF NOUNS

  1. MASCULINE GENDER
  2. FEMININE GENDER
  3. COMMON GENDER
  4. NEUTER GENDER

MASCULINE GENDER

The names of male animals or persons are said to be of Masculine Gender

eg :- lion, man, son, dog etc




FEMININE GENDER

The names of female animals or persons are said to be Feminine gender

eg :- girl, woman, hen, duck, lioness etc.

COMMON GENDER

The names of things which indicate either the masculine or the feminine gender as said to be of the common gender

eg :- doctor, teacher, orphan, child etc.

NEUTER GENDER

The names of the things that are neither male nor female are said to be of the Neuter Gender

eg :-  pen, table, tree, car etc.

WAYS OF FORMING THE FEMININE OF NOUNS

There are three ways of forming the feminine of nouns.

I. By a change of word




II. By adding – ess to the Masculine

NOTE :- The following feminine are formed by adding -ess to the masculine after omitting the ‘vowel’ of the last syllable of the masculine.

By adding  -ess in a less regular way

III. By placing a word before or after

Some other Masculine and Feminine are

NOTE :- Collective nouns, even when they denote living beings, are considered of the Neuter Gender as Jury, Committee.

  • The jury has given its verdict
  • The committee has formed its opinion




Animals and young children sometimes may be spoken of in the Neuter Gender.

Eg :-

  • The child knows its mind ( his or her)

 

GENDER OF PERSONIFIED OBJECTS

Sometimes Objects without life are spoken of as if they were persons, then they may be regarded as male or females

  1. Things remarkable for strength, firmness or energy are regarded as males like sun, time, death, winter, thunder, ocean.

Eg :-

  • The sun shot his bright rays
  • Death always knows his victim.

2. Things remarkable for beauty, gracefulness and gentleness as regarded as females as the moon, the earth, nature, spring, charity etc.

Eg:-

  •  The moon shed her light on the roof
  • Spring has her own charm and delight.

NOTE : A ‘ship’ is always spoken of as ‘she’

The ship fought her way through the stormy waves.

REWRITE THE SENTENCES CHANGING THE GENDER OF THE NOUNS.

  1. The monk played the part of a hero

The nun played the part of the heroine.

  1. His uncle is a widower.

Her aunt is a widow.

  1. The landlady went to the temple to pray to the Goddess.

The landlord went to the temple to pray to the God.

  1. The priest led the king to the castle.

The priestess led the queen to the castle.

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