Nouns: Gender Living beings are of either the male or the female sex A noun that denotes a male animal is of the masculine gender Examples are: boy, lion, hero, peacock, tiger and cock-sparrow A noun that denotes a female animal is of the feminine gender Examples are: girl, lioness, heroine, peahen, tigress, and hen sparrow A noun that denotes either a male or a female is said to be of the common gender Examples are: parent, child, baby, student, servant, doctor, teacher, singer, dancer, enemy, friend, cousin and neighbor A noun that denotes an inanimate object is of the neuter gender Examples are: book, pen, tree, stone, house and country How to form nouns in the feminine gender Some nouns in the feminine gender can be formed from the corresponding nouns in the masculine gender Here are some common methods used By adding the ending –ess Shepherd – shepherdess Lion – lioness Prince – princess (If the word ends in ‘e’, you only have to add ‘ss’.) Actor – actress (Sometimes you have to drop the vowel before the last letter before adding –ess.) Tiger – tigress Duke – duchess (Sometimes you have to change the spelling before adding –ess.) God – goddess (Sometimes you have to double the last consonant before adding –ess.) In some cases there is a complete change of form Examples are given below: Boy -> girl Papa -> mama Nephew -> niece Bull -> cow Cock -> hen Stay on top of your writing! Download our grammar guide from www.englishgrammar.org to stay up-to-date Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)