Gender

Male and female word forms: 'waiter/waitress'

   1)       In many languages, the names of things such as book, chair, radio, table may be grammatically masculine, feminine or neuter. Often gender doesn't relate to sex, so that the word for 'girl' might be neuter and the word for 'chair' might be feminine.

   2)       There is no grammatical gender for nouns in English. Though there can be exceptions, we use only he and she to refer to people and it to refer to everything else. It is the pronouns, not the nouns, that tell us whether the reference is to male or female:

He is the person you spoke to. She is the person you spoke to.

   3)       We still have a few male and female word forms (man/woman) and a few -ess endings that refer to females: waiter/waitress, lion/lioness. In the case of people, this -ess ending is becoming rare. In the interests of sexual equality words like author and manager refer to both sexes, rather than using *authoress* or *manageress* for a women.

Write: Supply the missing words.

1 John's brother is a bank clerk and his ...sister is a nurse.

2 My aunt is very nice and my ................... has a wonderful sense of humour.

3 My ...................is a little boy of four; my niece is a little girl of two.

4 My father's brother and sister have never married. He's still a ................... and she's a ...................

5 These days, few men become monks and few women become ...................

6 There is only one bull in the field, but there are dozens of ...................

7 The cock crows at dawn and wakes up all the ...................

8 The stallion is in a separate stable from the ...................

9 We call the boar Henry and we call the ..................Jemima.

10 The ewes look quiet enough, but I don't like the look of that ...................

1 1 Tony is an actor and his wife is an ...................

12 John and Jane work in a restaurant; he is a waiter and she is a ...................

13 In fairy tales the handsome ................... usually marries the beautiful princess.

14 We went to a wildlife park and saw a lot of lions and ...................

15 In mythology, Mars is the god of war; Diana is the ................... of hunting.

16 Katerina is the ...................t o her father's fortune.

17 Why does everyone expect the hero of the story to marry the ................... ?

18 A widow can often manage much better on her own than a ...................

19 A ................... won the award for most sales this month; a salesman came second.

20 When you look at fish, it's often difficult to distinguish between male and ...................

21 Very few people know the names of the kings and ................... of England.

22 1 took a photo of the bride and ...................a t the wedding.

23 The Smiths have a son called Robert and a ...................called Jill.

24 My uncle and ................... are over here from Canada.

25 1 enjoy being an uncle. I have two ................... and three nephews.

Identifying masculine and feminine through pronouns: 'He/She is a student'

   1)       The word forms man and woman tell us that the reference is to male and female, but with most nouns that refer to people, we don't know whether the reference is to male or female until we hear the pronoun:

My neighbour has just bought a new shed for his garden.

My neighbour is always telling us about her famous son.

   2)       Other typical nouns like this are:

adult, artist, child, cook, cousin, darling, dear, doctor, foreigner, friend, guest, journalist, lawyer, musician, orphan, owner, parent, passenger, person, pupil, relation, relative, scientist, singer, speaker, spouse, stranger, student, teacher, tourist, visitor, writer.

Write: Supply the correct pronouns in these sentences.

1 When I saw the doctor…she…told me to go back and see her again next week.

2 Jennifer is a fine musician. .......................plays in the Philharmonic.

3 My lawyer told me.......................would ring me when he had the information I wanted.

4 Your visitor left.......................glasses behind when he came here yesterday.

5 Professor Myers is a brilliant scientist........................should be given the Nobel Prize for her work.

6 Mrs Carter, our English teacher, really knows .......................grammar!

7 The artist, Rembrandt, painted several pictures of.......................wife.

8 Anton Schmidt works as a cook at a large hotel........................is famous for his cooking.

9 How would you describe her? - Well......................is a student of about 18.

10 How do you know this passport belongs to a woman? - The owner has .......................photo in it.

11 My daughter works as a journalist and .......................has been very successful.

12 You don't know .......................so you should begin your letter 'Dear Madam'