Masculine
English has three genders for nouns and
pronouns: masculine, feminine, and
neuter. The associated singular pronouns are
he, she and it. Unless obviously male (e.g., man,
boy, bull) or female (e.g., lady, vixen, sow), nouns tend to be neuter by
default. An animal can be referred to as it, or he
or she when the sex is known. Large machines, such as ships and
trains, which - by default - are neuter, are sometimes affectionally called she. For ease,
he is sometimes used in
writing to represent he and her. Likewise, his is used for his and
her.
Interactive example:
|
She / He
/ It / Them / Drake / Wizard
/ Goat / QE2 [show me the masculine ones] |
See also:
Glossary of grammatical terms
|
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