Masculine, Feminine, Common and Neuter nouns

“A father and son are in a car crash and are rushed to the hospital. The father dies. The boy is taken to the operating room and the surgeon says, “I can’t operate on this boy, because he’s my son.” How did that happen? 

No, this is not a ghost story – the surgeon is the mother of the boy. 

But what happened? We have some stereotypes of masculine and feminine professions and other words, which we are going to talk about today.

In today’s video, we will talk about-  

1. Masculine and feminine genders
2. How to make sentences for different genders
3. Gender inclusive vocabulary
4. Common gender and neuter gender 
5. Quiz #6
6. Answers to Quiz #5
7. Shout out to the fastest five correct answers

So let’s get going and today is a battle of sexes – ha ha ! Not literally, but we will figure out how English language changes a bit when we are talking about men and women.

Let’s take a look at some masculine and feminine nouns

 

Masculine Nouns	Feminine Nouns
This is a girl, she is feeling cold
	This is a boy, his moustaches are very large
This is grandma, her hair is longer than mine
	This is a king, he is looking for his queen. The king is very proud of himself
This is a bride, she needs to get dressed herself because her groom is out there waiting for her
	This is a hero, his movies have all flopped

 

Notice that the girl, boy, grandmother, king, bride and hero. are all gender specific nouns and 

his, her, she, he etc. are all gender specific pronouns.

Other gender specific pronouns are himself and herself.

 

Common Gender – 

 

Let me show you some professions and you have to guess if it is a man or a woman

What comes to your mind when I say Nurse? What about Teacher? Engineer or Soldier?

Yeah! stereotypes are everywhere. Let’s learn some gender inclusive vocabulary – 

Gender Inclusive Vocabulary

 

Old fashioned way	New vocabulary
Hey guys	Hey everyone
Who is that guy?	Who is that person?
Ladies and Gentlemen	Folks / Everyone / Peeps / people
Dear Sir	Dear Sir or Madam
The chairman of the company	The chairperson of the company
The student is required to write his roll number	The students are required to write their roll numbers
Waiter / waitress	Server
Steward / Air hostess / Stewardess	Flight attendant
Actor / Actress	Actor
The common man	The average person
Mankind	Humanity
Fireman	Fire fighter
Policeman	Police officer
Boyfriend / girlfriend	Partner / Spouse
Salesman / Saleswoman	Sales person
I left a message for the doctor and he said he would get back to me	I left a message for the doctor and they said, they would get back to me
I think someone left his laptop behind	I think someone left their laptop behind
Who is the marketing director of the company? I will email him	Who is the marketing director of the company? I will email them

 

Now that we have discussed the gender of all the living beings, let us turn our attention towards the neutral category. 

This includes animals – unless we specifically know the gender – e.g. the cat was licking its tail or the dog was eating its food – notice that there will be no apostrophe in this ‘its’ 

Also non living objects fall under this category. tables, television, vessel, chalk and so on. 

Let’s take a quick look at how sentences are formed for neuter gender

I saw the avengers movie last night, it was fascinating

The chair is very comfortable, I love its reclining back and soft cushion

 

Quiz Time #6

Q1 to 5 – Identify the gender of the following nouns

 

1. Brother  (masculine, feminine, common, neuter)
2. Teacher (masculine, feminine, common, neuter)
3. Cobbler (masculine, feminine, common, neuter)
4. Bird (masculine, feminine, common, neuter)
5. Aunt (masculine, feminine, common, neuter)

Q6 to 10 – What is a more appropriate word to use instead of – 

 

1. Waitress
2.  Actress
3. Policeman
4. Boyfriend
5. Chairman

 

Solutions to Quiz#5

 

1. Take On
2. Take Off
3. Take Out
4. Take Off
5. Take Out
6. Take To
7. Take Up
8. Take Out
9. Take On
10. Take Up