Nouns

Nouns: Gender
Gender is of four kinds:
1- Masculine (denotes male)
2- Feminine (denotes female)
3- Common (denotes both male and female)
4- Neuter (denotes neither male nor female)
Masculine Feminine Common Neuter
boy girl student gold man woman teacher rice brother sister doctor flower uncle aunt child river
Note: The words masculine and feminine can be used as adjectives to describe the looks or qualities of human beings. In this sense masculine means: having the characterstics of a man, so it can be used of a woman or girl as well. The lady standing in the centre has masculine looks. Similarly with feminine. Notice that in this sense masculine/feminine indicates characteristics or attributes, not sex.
Masculine and feminine forms The feminine of nouns is formed in two ways:
1- by adding ess to the masculine form .
actor Actress lion lioness
baron Baroness master mistress
count Countess murderer murderess
duke Duchess priest priestess
god Goddess prince princess
hunter huntress shepherd shepherdess
tiger tigress waiter waitress
Note: a) English has only a small number of feminine forms (noun + ess).
Professional activities are often referred to in the common gender. The feminine forms authoress, poetess, directress, inspectress are no longer in use. She is the director of this institute. (not, directress) She is an inspector of police. (not, inspectress)
b) The feminine form of hero is heroine.
2- by adding she/girl/woman to the masculine form
he-goat she-goat boy-friend girl-friend
businessman businesswoman policeman policewoman
sportsman sportswoman salesman saleswoman
But in many cases, the feminine form is not derived from the masculine form. In the examples listed below, the feminine form is a totally new word, not related to the masculine form phonetically.
bachelor - maid/spinster gander – goose boar - sow gentleman – lady boy - girl brother - sister horse - mare husband - wife bull/ox - cow lord – lady nephew - niece uncle - aunt