Nouns and gender

Most English nouns do not have grammatical gender. Nouns referring to people do not have separate forms for men (male form) and women (female form). However, some nouns traditionally had different forms. Nowadays, people usually prefer more neutral forms.

male form	female form	neutral form
actor	actress	actor
chairman	chairwoman	chair or chairperson
headmaster	headmistress	headteacher or head
host	hostess	(social) host (on an aircraft) cabin attendant
policeman	policewoman	police officer
steward	stewardess	(on an aircraft) cabin attendant
waiter	waitress	waiter

 

Traditional work-roles

Some jobs were normally done by men in the past, and their names had no form for women (e.g. fireman, fisherman). Some were normally done by women, and their names had no form for men (e.g. nurses and secretaries were almost always women). Nowadays, fire-fighter is preferred to fireman, and nurse is preferred for both sexes instead of male nurse for a man. Personal assistant (or PA) is often used instead of secretary. The neutral words are more ‘politically correct’ (not likely to offend anyone):

Two fire-fighters were injured in a blaze at an electronics factory yesterday.

My brother’s a nurse in the local hospital.

Animal names

Some animal names have male and female forms. Very often, one of the names acts as a neutral term, even if we know the sex of the animal.

male	female	neutral
bull	cow	cow
dog	bitch	dog
drake	duck	duck