3 Gender

At the end of this chapter, students will be able to:

€€ identify the gender of different nouns.
€€ change nouns from one gender to another.

Make correct gender pairs as shown below.

1. daughter son 6. uncle ____________
2. husband ____________ 7. brother ____________
3. lion ____________ 8. boy ____________
4. queen ____________ 9. male ____________
5. father ____________ 10. niece ____________

Read the following sentences:

1. I am a boy.
2. He is my father.
3. You are a girl.
4. She is your mother.
5. Ram is my brother, and Geeta is my sister.
In the above sentences, the red-coloured nouns—boy, father and brother—refer to males,
while the blue-coloured nouns—girl, mother and sister—refer to females.

Nouns that refer to men, boys or male animals are called masculine gender
nouns.

Nouns that refer to women, girls or female animals are called feminine
gender nouns.

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A. Read the following sentences. Write whether the highlighted nouns are masculine
gender nouns or feminine gender nouns.
1. Suresh is my nephew. ____________
2. Buffalo are farm animals. ____________
3. The priest was in the temple. ____________
4. Uncle is coming with aunt. ____________ ____________
5. The tiger and tigress ruled the forest. ____________ ____________
Let us now look at some more examples of masculine and feminine genders.
Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine
actor actress prince princess
heir heiress god goddess
host hostess hunter huntress
lion lioness master mistress
poet poetess tiger tigress
priest priestess waiter waitress
Now, look at some more examples.
Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine
boy girl king queen
bridegroom bride man woman
brother sister monk nun
bull cow nephew niece
father mother sir madam
husband wife son daughter
Read the following sentences:
1. The teacher speaks well.
2. The horse runs fast.
3. The dancers are on the stage.
4. The children are playing.
5. The students are reading.
In the above sentences, the nouns—teacher, horse, dancers, children and students do not
tell us whether they are male or female. They can either be male or female. Nouns that are
used for both male and female are called common gender nouns.

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 Nouns that refer to both males and females are called common gender
nouns.

Let us now look at some examples of common gender nouns along with their masculine
and feminine forms.
Common Masculine Feminine
person man woman
parent father mother
child boy/son girl/daughter
spouse husband wife
server waiter waitress
monarch king queen
sibling brother sister
Let us have a look at some more examples.
Common Masculine Feminine
chicken cock hen
deer buck doe
duck drake duck
fox fox vixen
goose gander goose
horse stallion mare
pig boar sow
rabbit buck doe
sheep ram ewe
Read the following sentences:
1. He plays the piano very well.
2. The cook used a knife to slice the bread.
3. The ship sails in the ocean.
In the above sentences, the highlighted nouns refer to non-living things. They are neither
masculine nor feminine. Such nouns are said to be in neuter gender.

Nouns that are used to refer to non-living things are called neuter gender
nouns.

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B. Fill in the blanks with the opposite gender of the following nouns.
1. god ______________________ 5. king ______________________
2. host ______________________ 6. fox ______________________
3. aunt ______________________ 7. hen ______________________
4. sir ______________________ 8. bull ______________________
C. Write the common gender nouns for the following group of nouns.
1. father and mother ____________________
2. brother and sister ____________________
3. husband and wife ____________________
4. queen and king ____________________
5. ram and ewe ____________________
D. Sort the words given below into the correct gender columns.
rabbit madam nephew book child
dancer daughter woman monk cattle
prince chocolate lord doctor king
mare pizza bride neighbour boat

Masculine Gender Feminine Gender Common Gender Neuter Gender

E. Tick () the correct options.

1. The feminine of emperor is _______________.
(a) emperoress (b) impress
(c) empress (d) she emperor

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 2. Common gender of cow is _______________.
(a) cat (b) kat
(c) kattle (d) cattle
3. The masculine of heiress is _______________.
(a) heir (b) hair
(c) hier (d) higher
4. The masculine of mother is _______________.
(a) father (b) feather
(c) further (d) parent
5. The feminine of brother is _______________.
(a) sister (b) wife
(c) mother (d) sibling

NCF C-4.1, C-4.2

Initiative & Self-Direction

Open your favourite storybook to any page you like.

Draw two columns on your paper:
´´ At the top of the first column, draw a boy.
´´ At the top of the second column, draw a girl.
Now, be a word detective!
´´ Read one page of your story.
´´ Look for words that talk about boys or girls.
´´ Write these words in the correct column.
Can you find three pairs of words that go together? For example,
´´ brother-sister ´´ king-queen ´´ uncle-aunt
Now, share your list with your family. Can they help you add more words to your columns?

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