Gender in Nouns (Stein)
Activity 1
Explain to the learners that nouns can refer to male or female people. In language, this difference is called gender.
Ask learners to copy down the list and add the nouns of the oppsite gender. Show them the solutions and ask them what patterns they notice. Answer: some are completely different words while others use a suffix to change the meaning.
Activity 2
Explain to the learners the suffix -ess can be used to turn male nouns female. Ask them to copy and convert the list of nouns, and to check whether they need any futher spelling changes e.g. god/goddess.
Activity 3
Explain to learners how nouns can be either male, female, common or neuter. Ask them to copy the list of words and then to categorise them accordingly. Check the answers as a whole class.
Male: monk, boy, son, brother, uncle
Female: nun, girl, daughter, sister, aunt
Common: doctor, guest, student, friend, servant, enemy, child, cook
Neuter: milk, bridge, jacket, king, road, cup, finger
Activity 4
Have the learners read the ten sentences in pairs or small groups and discuss the questions.
The learners can tell the gender by using pronouns (she), honorifics (Mr.) or determiners (hers).
In sentence 3, the gender of the 'guest' is not apparent.
This lesson is adapted (with permission) from Words and Meanings: A Systematic Guide for the Teaching of English Vocabulary, by Gabriele Stein.
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Gender in Nouns (Stein)
Objective
To explore the meaning of gender in nouns.
Activity 1
What's the difference between the words mother and father?
Nouns for people can refer to a man or a male such as father or to a woman or female such as mother .
In language, we call this difference gender.
For each noun, write the word that expresses the opposite gender:
- boy
- grandad
- waiter
- king
- son
- nephew
- uncle
- empress
- bride
- heroine
- actress
- princess
Here are the solutions.
What do you notice about how the opposites are formed? Do they all follow the same pattern?
- boy - girl
- grandad - grandma
- waiter - waitress
- king - queen
- son - daughter
- nephew - niece
- uncle - aunty
- empress - emperor
- bride - groom
- heroine - hero
- actress - actor
- princess - prince
Activity 2
What do these examples have in common?
prince - princess and actor - actress
The examples prince - princess and actor - actress show that the form for the female person can be made by adding the suffix -ess to the word for the male person.
There may be changes to the spelling as in actor - actress .
Here are a number of nouns denoting a male person. Form the name for the female person by adding the suffix -ess:
- baron
- giant
- god
- heir
- host
- mayor
- peer
Here are the solutions. How many of them required a spelling change?
- baron - baroness
- giant - giantess
- god - goddess
- heir - heiress
- host - hostess
- mayor - mayoress
- peer - peeres
Activity 3
Most nouns do not have a male or female gender.
Some nouns like parent can refer to either gender ie to male and/or female. These words are called common gender nouns.
Nouns like door or window have no gender and are known as neuter.
Check the following nouns very carefully and then sort them into the appropriate group:
The sentences below include a common gender noun. Can you use any clues to work out the gender of the person referred to in blue? Make sure to look at all the words in the sentence to find the clues.
- Mrs Brown is a teacher .
- Bill's uncle became a successful photographer .
- She brought a guest to the party
- His little brother had always wanted to be a writer .
- The artist had her first exhibition last year.
- The teacher was welcomed by her student.
- He is an assistant in a big shop.
- Their daughter was a doctor in South Africa.
- Heather has been their cook for eight years now.
- Mr Roberts has now become Mary's enemy number 1.
This lesson is adapted (with permission) from Words and Meanings: A Systematic Guide for the Teaching of English Vocabulary, by Gabriele Stein.