Gender in Nouns (Stein)

Objective

To explore the meaning of gender in nouns.

Activity 1

What's the difference between the words mother and father?

Nouns for people can refer to a man or a male such as father or to a woman or female such as mother .

In language, we call this difference gender.

For each noun, write the word that expresses the opposite gender: 

• boy
• grandad
• waiter
• king
• son
• nephew
• uncle
• empress
• bride
• heroine
• actress
• princess

Here are the solutions.

What do you notice about how the opposites are formed? Do they all follow the same pattern?

• boy - girl
• grandad - grandma
• waiter - waitress
• king - queen
• son - daughter
• nephew - niece
• uncle - aunty
• empress - emperor
• bride - groom
• heroine - hero
• actress - actor (though increasingly actor is now used for both genders)
• princess - prince

Activity 2

What do these examples have in common?

prince - princess

actor - actress

The examples prince - princess and actor - actress show that the form for the female person can be made by adding the suffix -ess to the word for the male person.

There may be changes to the spelling as in actor - actress.

Here are a number of nouns denoting a male person. Form the name for the female person by adding the suffix -ess:

• baron
• giant
• god
• heir
• host
• mayor
• peer

Here are the solutions. How many of them required a spelling change?

• baron - baroness
• giant - giantess
• god - goddess
• heir - heiress
• host - hostess
• mayor - mayoress
• peer - peeres

Activity 3

Most nouns do not have male or female gender. 

Some nouns like parent can refer to either gender i.e. to a male or female person. These words are called common gender nouns.

Nouns like door or window have no gender and are known as neuter.

Check the following nouns very carefully and then sort them into the appropriate group:

The sentences below include a common gender noun. Can you use any clues to work out the gender of the person referred to in blue? Make sure to look at all the words in the sentence to find the clues. 

1. Mrs Brown is a teacher.
2. Bill's uncle became a successful photographer.
3. She brought a guest to the party
4. His little brother had always wanted to be a writer.
5. The artist had her first exhibition last year.
6. The teacher was welcomed by her student.
7. He is an assistant in a big shop.
8. Their daughter was a doctor in South Africa.
9. Heather has been their cook for eight years now.
10. Mr Roberts has now become Mary's enemy number 1.

This lesson is adapted (with permission) from Words and Meanings: A Systematic Guide for the Teaching of English Vocabulary, by Gabriele Stein.