Introduction: Gender

• The term Gender is derived from a Latin word genus (meaning kind or sort). It tells us about the sex of the noun
• Noun can be categorized into Male and Female. 
• A noun referring to Male counterpart is called masculine gender.
• A noun referring to Female counterpart is called feminine gender.
• For most of the Nouns we have distinction of Male and Female. For example, Human Beings have two genders- Boy, Man, Gents for Male and Girl, Woman, Ladies for Female. 
• This type of distinction is valid for most of the animals on earth. 

Common gender- 

• The word Common itself implies something which is common to everyone
• Common gender denotes either Male or Female.

For Example:

• The word student does not clarify whether it is a boy or a girl. But it denotes a student in general. So the word student is a common gender because it can denote either a boy student or a girl student. 
• Other examples of common gender are Parents, Guardian, Child, Teacher, Doctor, Friend and Baby.

Neuter gender

• Neuter Gender denotes something that is neither male nor female. 
• The neuter gender does not fall into the category of male or female. And hence these words do not have gender. 
• All Non-living things belong to this category. 

For Example:

1. book has no gender. We cannot categorize it into male or female. Therefore, the word book is a Neuter Gender. 
2. Other such examples of Neuter Gender are Pen, Chair, Tree, Table, Car, School, Shoes, Notebooks and Buildings. 

• But there are certain non-living things which are treated as persons. 
• The act of treating a non-living thing as a living thing and attributing living characteristics to them is called personification. 
• These non-living things are then treated as male or female. 

For Example:

1. The nature takes care of her children; The moon is hiding her face behind the dense clouds; The sun shines with his entire velour.
2. Words like sun, time, summer, winter, etc. are categorized as male. 
3. Words like moon, peace, mercy, nature, earth, spring, autumn, etc. are categorized as female. 

Masculine and Feminine forms of Nouns

• There some example where feminine form of noun is a complete different word than the masculine form of the noun.

• There some examples where feminine form of noun is obtained by suffixing “-ess” or “-ine” after the masculine form of the noun. For example,

• There some example where feminine form of noun is obtained by suffixing a different word after the masculine form of the noun.