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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