What is Gender in English


What is the Meaning of Gender in English? 

In English, the gender means the words that refer to biological sex: male sex, female sex or other sex. 


Examples:

Boy (male sex) 

Girl (female sex) 


Why Learn Gender? 

As a learner of English, you need to learn the gender system of the English language so that you can avoid making grammatical errors related to gender. For instance, if you are not aware that the word, ‘Girl’ is a feminine gender, it is possible that you use ‘himself’ for the same. In other words, as you don't know what the gender of the word, ‘Girl’ is, you can say “The girl talked to himself.” in place of ‘herself’. Likewise, you can possibly say “The girl took his bag and left for his house.” in place of ‘her’. So you need to learn the gender of nouns and pronouns used in English. 


Types of Gender in English grammar 

There are four types of gender in English. They are as follows: 

1. Male gender (Masculine gender) 

2. Female gender (Feminine gender) 

3. Common gender

4. Neuter gender


1. Male gender refers to male or male figure. 


Examples:

(a) My son went to the market with his wife. (Son→ Male... ‘His’ used for this reason) 

(b) My stallion is really nice. (Stallion → Male horse) 


2. Female gender refers to female or female figure.


Examples:

(a) My daughter is coming to our house with her husband. (Daughter →female, ‘her’ used for this reason) 

(b) The mare is sitting with her babies. (Mare→ female horse ) 


3. Common gender refers to livings that don't specify the gender. 


Examples:

(a) Every student opened their books. (Student → Common gender) 

(b) A friend will always stand with you. (Friend → Common gender) 


Note:- When there's a common gender word, ‘They’ or ‘their’ is used for it. But traditionally, ‘his/her’ is used for it. 


4. Neuter gender refers to those things that have no gender. 


Examples:

(a) I've recently bought a table. It is nice . (Table → neuter gender, ‘It’ used with table) 

(b) My pencil is red, but its cap is white. (Pencil → neuter gender, ‘Its’ used with pencil)


Exercise 1


Read the following words and decide their genders.

1. Woman

2. Hen 

3. Actor

4. Actress

5. Girl 

6. Man 

7. Lady 

8. Doctor

9. Student

10. Father


Answer keys:- 

1. Feminine gender

2. Feminine gender

3. Masculine gender

4. Feminine gender

5. Feminine gender

6. Masculine gender

7. Feminine gender

8. Common gender

9. Common gender

10. Masculine gender


Exercise 2


Fill in the blanks with appropriate pronouns according to the gender of the words used. 

1. Every student will go to......... class. (their or his) 

2. My daughter came with.... husband. (her or his) 

3. My son practises speaking English with..... friends. (his or her) 

4. My mom will go to.....own house. (his or her) 

5. The baby is sleeping with.....mom. (his, her or its ) 


Answer keys:- 

1. Their 

2. Her 

3. His 

4. Her 

5. Its