AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE
    Kareena"s husband is more handsome than
    Karishma.                                    — wrong                              GENDER
    Kareena"s husband is more handsome than
                                                                 What is gender ?
    Karishma"s.                                 — correct
                                                                 In grammar, there is a classification of a Noun or Pro-
    Rohan"s brother is more intelligent than Mohan.
                                                            noun as Masculine or Feminine. Therefore, gender is the
                                                  —wrong    sexual classification in grammar. Gender comes from Latin
    Rohan"s brother is more intelligent than Mohan"s.       genus, meaning kind or sort.
                                                 —correct        We know that living beings are either the male or the
 5. If possessive is used before as it should also be       female sex.
    used after as.                                               A              B            A             B
  For example,                                                   Boy            Girl         Tiger         Tigress
         Dolly"s sister is as beautiful as Sony.                 Actor          Actress      Man           Woman
                                                —wrong           Hero           Heroine      Cock          Hen
         Dolly"s sister is as beautiful as Sony"s.               Lion           Lioness      Brother       Sister
                                               —correct          The words in the first column under A are the names
 6. If two Nouns are closely related, we are to use         of all male animals.
    possessive with the last Noun.                               And, the words in the second column under B are the
  For example,                                              names of all female animals.
         Kapoor and son"s shop.                                  A noun that denotes a male animal is said to be of the
         Choudhury and grand son"s shop.                    Masculine Gender.
    But,                                                         A noun that denotes a female animal is said to be of
         Keats" and Shelley"s poems.                        the Feminine Gender.
         Smith"s and Adam"s definations.                         Besides, Masculine Gender and Feminine Gender, there
                                                            is a gender which is said to be the Common Gender. In
         [These two nouns are not closely related.]
                                                            this gender, a noun that denotes either a male or a female
 7. If there is too much sound of hiss, ses, sus etc., of
                                                            is included.
    the last syllable of a noun, we use only (’).
                                                                 For example,
  For example,
                                                                    parent, child, pupil, servant, friend, thief, relation,
         Moses" death, Jesus" love,Consciences" sake,               enemy, cousin, orphan, student, person, baby,
         For justices" sake, For goodness" sake.                    guardian, monarch, infant, neighbour, tutor etc.
 8. Possessive is also used with some personified                A noun that denotes a thing that is neither male nor
    phrases.                                                female is said to be of Neuter Gender.
  For example,                                                   [Neuter means neither, i.e. neither male nor female.]
         At death"s door, Fortune"s favour,The s oul"s           For example,
    prayer, God"s mercy, India"s heroes, Nature"s laws,             Book, pen, table, chair, room, wall, tree, paper, ball,
    At duty"s call.                                                 sword, radio, telephone, bag, cloth, cigarette, music,
 9. The Possessive can also be used to show — time,                 key, bus, auto, motor, song etc.
    distance, weight, edge etc.                                  Masculine Gender is often applied to objects remark-
    For example,                                            able for strength, violence, sublimity and superiority.
         A week"s leave.          A mule"s distance.             For example,
         A kilo"s weight.         A bat"s edge.                  Death, time, winter, summer, the sun, fear, love etc.
         A day"s match.           A stone"s throw.                  Feminine Gender is often applied to objects
    In a year"s time.                                               remarkable for beauty, gentleness gracefulness,
         A foot"s length.         A month"s holiday.                fertility, softness, sweetness and weakness etc.
10. Possessive can too be used to indicate — school,             For example,
    shop, clinic, church, house, college, hospital, theatre         The moon, the earth, spring, liberty, autumn, nature,
    etc.                                                            charity, church, hope, justice, mercy, peace, religion,
  For example,                                                      spring, truth, viture, names of countries, locomotive
    Sonia reads in St.Columbu’s.                                    engines, cars, ships and of arts and sciences.
                                 [in St.Columbus school]          FORMATION OF FEMININE NOUNS FROM
    Kamia went to barber"s.        [the shop of barber]
                                                                                   THE MASCULINE
                                                                 There are three ways of forming the feminine from the
    Kavita went to doctor"s. [the clinic of doctor]
                                                            masculine.
    To-night I dine at my uncle"s. [house of uncle]
                                                            (1) By using a different word.
    Anand was educated at Xavier"s. [Xavier school)
                                                                 For example,
11. The following phrases are also commonly used.
                                                              Masculine          Feminine     Masculine Feminine
  For example,                                                Father             Mother       Brother        Sister
         A boat"s crew.           At his wit"s end.           Husband            Wife         Boy            Girl
         At his finger"s end.     For mercy"s sake.           Uncle              Aunt         Pappa          Mamma
         To his heart"s content.                              Nephew             Niece        Man            Woman
                                                        SEE–23