Gender: Masculine and Feminine for the Assam Police Constable (AB & UB) Exam
Gender is a small, neat topic in the General English paper, and it is one of the easiest places to collect full marks. The question is almost always a straight pairing: the masculine form is given and the feminine is asked, or the other way round. What makes the topic worth a little care is that English forms the feminine in three different ways, and a candidate who has learnt only one of them will be caught by the other two. Some words change completely, as man becomes woman; some words take an ending, as actor becomes actress; and some words keep the same form for both, as in teacher and doctor. This page groups the words under those three heads, adds the animal pairs and the common-gender nouns, and lists the traps that quietly cost marks. The material follows the standard grammar reference books used for Assam recruitment examinations and is reviewed before it is published.
How This Portion Is Set
The paper usually gives one member of a pair and asks for the other. Sometimes it gives four pairs and asks which one is wrong, and sometimes it asks for the feminine of an animal name. Because the pairing is fixed, this topic is learnt most quickly as a list of pairs, and the three methods of formation are learnt so that an unfamiliar word can still be guessed correctly.
The Three Kinds of Gender
Nouns are said to be masculine when they name a male, feminine when they name a female, common when they name either, and neuter when they name a thing without life. The examination is not much interested in the labels, but it does test the pairs, so the labels are useful only as a way of grouping the words.
Masculine and Feminine by a Completely Different Word
In this group the feminine is not built from the masculine at all; it is a separate word.
- Man and woman; boy and girl; sir and madam.
- King and queen; lord and lady; emperor and empress.
- Father and mother; brother and sister; son and daughter.
- Husband and wife; uncle and aunt; nephew and niece.
- Wizard and witch; bachelor and spinster; monk and nun.
Feminine Formed by Adding -ess
This is the largest group, and the ending is added to the masculine word, sometimes with a small change in the spelling.
- Actor and actress; author and authoress; poet and poetess.
- Host and hostess; waiter and waitress; steward and stewardess.
- Prince and princess; god and goddess; master and mistress.
- Tiger and tigress; lion and lioness; heir and heiress.
- Manager and manageress; hunter and huntress; shepherd and shepherdess.
Feminine Formed with -ine, -ina and Other Endings
A smaller group takes endings other than -ess, and these must be learnt separately because there is no rule to work them out.
- Hero and heroine; czar and czarina.
- Fox and vixen; drone and bee; stag and doe.
- Executor and executrix; testator and testatrix.
Nouns of Common Gender
Some nouns serve for both sexes and need a word such as male or female, or a pronoun, to show which is meant.
- Baby, child, infant; parent, cousin, relative.
- Teacher, doctor, lawyer, engineer; student, servant, neighbour.
- Friend, enemy, stranger; person, citizen, member.
Gendered Words for Animals
Animal pairs appear very often, and they too fall into two kinds, the separate words and the -ess forms.
- Bull and cow; ox and cow; ram and ewe.
- Horse and mare; stallion and mare; dog and bitch.
- Cock and hen; drake and duck; gander and goose.
- Buck and doe; boar and sow; colt and filly.
Words That Are Often Misused
- Lady is the feminine of gentleman in ordinary courtesy, while lord pairs with lady in a title.
- Miss and Mrs are not genders but titles; the gender pair is simply man and woman.
- Widow is the feminine; the masculine is widower, not widow.
- Bride pairs with bridegroom, not with groom alone in the examination sense.
Traps That Cost Marks
- Making a feminine form where the word is already common gender, as in calling a female teacher a teacheress.
- Writing widow as the masculine of widow.
- Mixing the -ess form with the separate word, as in using lion woman for lioness.
- Forgetting the small spelling changes, as in emperor to empress.
- Confusing doe, the female deer, with the young ones of other animals.
A Revision Plan for This Block
- Make a two-column list of masculine and feminine and learn it in pairs, not in singles.
- Mark each pair with the letter D for separate word, E for -ess and O for other ending.
- Learn the animal pairs separately, because they appear as often as the human pairs.
- Learn the common-gender nouns as a warning list, so that no wrong feminine is invented.
- Revise the whole list twice a week and test yourself by covering one column.
Compound Words and Their Feminine
When a word is made of two parts, only the part that shows the sex is changed, and the rest of the word stays as it is. This rule saves a good deal of memorising, because once the parts are known the pair can be worked out rather than remembered.
- Manservant and maidservant; landlord and landlady.
- Grandfather and grandmother; grandson and granddaughter.
- Stepfather and stepmother; stepson and stepdaughter.
- Schoolmaster and schoolmistress; washerman and washerwoman.
- Boyfriend and girlfriend; spokesman and spokeswoman.
Feminine Forms with a Change of Ending
A few words take a completely different ending in the feminine, and these are best learnt as single pairs, because no general rule covers them all.
- Duke and duchess; marquis and marchioness.
- Signor and signora; sultan and sultana.
- Infante and infanta; abbot and abbess.
- Prophet and prophetess; priest and priestess.
More Gender Pairs for Practice
- Boy and girl; man and woman; king and queen.
- Father and mother; son and daughter; brother and sister.
- Uncle and aunt; nephew and niece; husband and wife.
- Grandfather and grandmother; widower and widow.
- Actor and actress; waiter and waitress; prince and princess.
- Lion and lioness; tiger and tigress; host and hostess.
- Hero and heroine; fox and vixen; cock and hen.
Using Gender Correctly in a Sentence
In a sentence, the gender word must agree with the person or animal meant, and the pronoun that follows must agree with the gender word. If the subject is the actress, the pronoun later in the sentence is she and not he. The examination sometimes tests this agreement indirectly, so a candidate who has learnt the pairs should also read the sentence around the blank to see whether the pronoun points to a man or a woman. This one habit prevents a wrong answer even when the pair is known.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the feminine of actor?
The feminine of actor is actress. Words ending in -or often take -ess in the feminine, though not all of them do.
What is the masculine of widow?
The masculine of widow is widower. A common mistake is to write widow itself as the masculine form.
What is the feminine of horse, dog and cock?
The feminine of horse is mare, of dog is bitch, and of cock is hen. These are separate words and not -ess forms.
Why is teacher called a noun of common gender?
Because teacher can stand for either a man or a woman. A noun of common gender needs no separate feminine form, and making one such as teacheress is wrong.
What is the feminine of hero and emperor?
The feminine of hero is heroine, and the feminine of emperor is empress. The first takes the ending -ine and the second changes to -ess.