Questions regarding the grammatical gender of English words.
84
votes
19answers
8k views
What is a feminine version of 'guys'?
I commonly use the word 'guys' to refer to a group of males colloquially. It's colloquial but not rude, off putting, condescending, patronizing (though I wouldn't use it with a group of men at a board ...
6
votes
2answers
711 views
On the specifics of illegitimate children
Is there a feminine form of the word bastard? It seems like bastard is a word that’s applied to male children only.
9
votes
3answers
2k views
What's the difference between “blond” and “blonde”?
I hear all the time that one word is for males and the other is for females but I'm skeptical...
3
votes
3answers
251 views
Avoiding the use of “the reader”?
I'm writing a response essay to Medieval Women's Visionary writings that possess power. In this essay I'm supposed to explain how two writers, that I've picked to write about, possess or don't possess ...
14
votes
4answers
639 views
Advice for using multiple same-gender personal pronouns in the same sentence
I have often struggled with sentences that contain two characters of the same gender. For example, if there are two females, Alice and Carol, then the following sentence can be confusing.
Alice ...
1
vote
0answers
241 views
Is “ship” a feminine word? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is it a good practice to refer to countries, ships etc using the feminine form?
My English teacher asked me which third-person personal pronoun is used for the word ...
2
votes
3answers
361 views
Gender, generally associated with “toad” characters in English fiction and folklore
Common noun for a toad ("жаба") is of female gender in Russian.
From all English literature that I read, I can remember only one toad-like character: Mr. Toad from The Wind in The Willows, and he is ...
20
votes
4answers
3k views
Is it a good practice to refer to countries, ships etc using the feminine form?
While talking about ships and countries, is it a good practice to use the feminine form? For example:
"Her economy" - while referring to a country's economy
"Her flag (or deck etc)" - while ...
6
votes
2answers
260 views
Why are “he”, “she”, and “it” distinct in the singular, but all “they” in the plural?
Other languages have gender-specific third-person plural pronouns (e.g., ellos and ellas in Spanish). English does not, despite the masculine/feminine/neuter distinction being obligatory in the ...
8
votes
5answers
766 views
“She left me for another woman” or “She left me for a woman”?
Assuming a male speaker is referring to an ex-partner, which of the following is more correct?
She left me for another woman
She left me for a woman
The phrase She left me for another ...
12
votes
3answers
1k views
Why are there different ways of indicating gender for animals?
Why are there different ways of indicating gender for animals?
For instance, by inflexion we get:
lion (male) & lioness (female)
where the female is distinguished from the male. Here the male is ...
16
votes
2answers
3k views
13
votes
2answers
314 views
Is it acceptable to write “(wo)man”?
I just read this: It’s a (wo)man’s world out there.
Is this an accepted approach to gender-neutral language, or is it just used when humor is intended?
5
votes
4answers
1k views
How to avoid sexist language?
I have observed that I use a lot of sexist terms; it comes naturally to me! I have resolved to be "perfectly" non-sexist from now onwards. I would like to know how to avoid sexist language.
Yes, ...
14
votes
1answer
585 views
Did the English language ever have noun genders?
And if so, how did they differentiate between male, female or neuter nouns? Did English ever have gender-specific (in)definite articles? (like der/die/das in German)
1
vote
4answers
319 views
Should the common usage “Webmasters” be gender neutered into a separate webmistresses to describe female web site admin professionals?
Should the common usage "Webmasters" be gender neutered into a separate webmistresses to describe female web site admin professionals?
Specifically why do we really need a term like web mistresses? ...
5
votes
4answers
5k views
Should I use “his/her” or “its”? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicates:
Gender neutral pronoun
Is it correct to use “their” instead of “his or her”?
I am writing a software documentation. I have this issue: I am ...
4
votes
2answers
265 views
Is the English Language becoming more generic, in the sense that English is distinguishing less between masculine and feminine?
To clarify: what I mean is that in Australia for instance there is a trend in English to use words that do not distinguish between men and women. E.g. Chairperson instead of Chairman.
So the question ...
7
votes
1answer
2k views
Female Actor or Actress
I've recently and very annoyingly noticed the word actor used for female actresses in the Indian print media.
I have a few questions :
a) Is this the correct usage of the word?
b) Is this an ...
18
votes
1answer
2k views
Why don't English nouns have grammatical gender?
English nouns — other than those with natural gender, e.g. people or animals — do not generally have grammatical gender, and so are referred to as "it" rather than "he" or "she".
However, modern ...
12
votes
8answers
1k views
Are there sentences in languages which use grammatical gender that lose meaning when translated into English?
English nouns which don't denote people or animals with natural gender do not (apart from a few rare examples) use grammatical gender. So for example, "table" is always an "it" in English, whereas it ...
26
votes
6answers
19k views
Is it correct to use “their” instead of “his or her”?
Is this sentence grammatically correct?
Anyone who loves the English language should have a copy of this book in their bookcase.
or should it be:
Anyone who loves the English language should ...
11
votes
4answers
351 views
When referring to a noun, when does the gender matter?
In most languages, gender plays a much more important role than in English. Nevertheless, it is possible to refer to a noun using its gender.
The ship was launched on 4 October 1853. Tayleur left ...
