Gender-specific nouns

In many languages, the gender of nouns is divided into three categories; masculine, feminine and neuter.
Male people and animals belong to the masculine gender (e.g. boy, son, or uncle) and female people and animals belong to the feminine gender (e.g. girl, daughter, or aunt).


In English, most nouns are neither masculine or feminine. They do not refer specifically to males or females. They are neuter.

A gender-specific noun refers only to males or only to females. Gender-specific nouns traditionally have separate forms for males and females.
Nowadays, people prefer not to use feminine forms of some nouns. For example, we can use the word ‘actor’ for both male and female.

Masculine
Feminine
actor
actress
boy
girl
bridegroom
bride
brother
sister
businessman
businesswoman
chairman
chairwoman
conductor
conductress
congressman
congresswoman
count
countress
dad (daddy)
mum (mummy)
duke
duchess
emperor
empress
god
godess
heir
heiress
hero
heroine
host
hostess
husband
wife
king
queen
man
woman
master
mistress
murderer
murderess
nephew
niece
poet
poetess
policeman
policewoman
salesman
saleswoman
sir
madam
son
daughter
uncle
aunt
waiter
waitress
weatherman
weathergirl
wizard
witch

We can also use neutral words instead of some gender-specific nouns.  For example, we can use police officer instead of policeman or policewoman.

Neutral form
Masculine
Feminine
businessperson
businessman
businesswoman
chair
chairman
chairwoman
firefighter
fireman

police officer
policeman
policewoman
cabin attendant
steward
stewardess
waiter
waitress
server

Some animals names have different forms for males and females

Animal
Masculine
Feminine
cattle
bull
cow
chicken
rooster
hen
deer
buck
doe
dog
dog
bitch
duck
drake
duck
fox
fox
vixen
goose
gander
goose
horse
stallion
mare
lion
lion
lioness
rabbit
buck
doe
sheep
ram
ewe
tiger
tiger
tigress


Gender of nouns



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