Types of Nouns and Forming Feminine Nouns

Types of Gender

• Masculine nouns refer to males, e.g. king
• Feminine nouns refer to females, e.g. queen
• Common nouns refer to both males and females, e.g. doctor
• Neuter nouns are neither male nor female, typically referring to objects or non-living things, e.g. tree

Forming Feminine Nouns

• Adding suffixes to masculine nouns can form feminine nouns:
  • Adding "-ess" or "-ine"
  • Adding "-woman" or "-maid"
• Examples:
  • King → Queen
  • Hero → Heroine
  • Milkman → Milkmaid
• Nouns derived from compound words can be made feminine by changing the first part of the compound word, e.g. peacock → peahen, stepson → stepdaughter

Nouns of Common Gender

• The following nouns are considered to be of common gender:
  • Child
  • Parent
  • Reporter
  • Companion
  • Person
  • Student
  • Cousin
  • Player
  • Teacher
  • Friend
  • Pupil
  • Tutor

Nouns that are no longer in use

• Authoress and Poetess are no longer used, and the words author, poet, and actor are now considered to be of common gender.

Using he or she for pet animals

• Pet animals are typically referred to as "he" or "she" depending on their gender.

Practice Exercises

• The feminine gender of the following nouns is:
  • Waiter → Waitress
  • Monk → Nun
  • Stag → Hind
  • Cock → Hen

Nouns: Gender

• A noun that refers to a male is classified as masculine gender, e.g., boy, man, brother, father, king, dog.
• A noun that refers to a female is classified as feminine gender, e.g., girl, woman, sister, mother, queen, bitch.
• A noun that can refer to both males and females is classified as common gender, e.g., baby, child, parent, teacher, pupil, student, person, doctor, player, cousin, friend, neighbour, bird.
• A noun that refers to a non-living thing is classified as neuter gender, e.g., book, pen, chair, car, wood, gold, school.

Collective Nouns

• Collective nouns like crew, flock, class, army refer to collections of living beings.
• Despite referring to living beings, collective nouns are considered neuter gender.

Formation of the Feminines of Nouns

• There are three ways to form feminine nouns.
• One way is to add -ess to the masculine noun, e.g., heir → heiress, host → hostess, priest → priestess, baron → baroness, lion → lioness.
• Sometimes the spelling of the word may need to be altered slightly before adding -ess, e.g., duke → duchess, emperor → empress, god → goddess, hunter → huntress, master → mistress, governor → governess, prince → princess, tiger → tigress, waiter → waitress.