For questions about the usage, role, history, and lack of grammatical gender in English.
Questions tagged [grammatical-gender]
212 questions
34
votes
5 answers
Is it a good practice to refer to countries, ships etc using the feminine form?
While talking about ships and countries, is it a good practice to use the feminine form? For example:
"Her economy" - while referring to a country's economy
"Her flag (or deck etc)" - while referring to a ship
Is this practice common? Is it used…
user187809
- 459
14
votes
2 answers
Is it acceptable to write "(wo)man"?
I just read this: It’s a (wo)man’s world out there.
Is this an accepted approach to gender-neutral language, or is it just used when humor is intended?
Sid
- 2,782
13
votes
2 answers
Female Actor or Actress
I've recently noticed the word actor used for female actresses in the Indian print media.
I have a few questions :
a) Is this the correct usage of the word?
b) Is this an international phenomenon?
c) Are you aware of the origins, time and…
Fake Jon Skeet
- 251
12
votes
2 answers
Is a male fox widely called a "dog fox"?
Someone on the BBC lunchtime news today referred to a dog fox.
The word dog is both generic and applied to both sexes, as well as being used to describe a male. Only context reveals whether a person is talking about dogs in general or a male dog, as…
WS2
- 64,657
11
votes
6 answers
What is the gender of an aircraft?
I know that a ship is always referred using "she", but what about aircraft? What should we use when we're referring to aircraft? Is it the same for automobile?
Lipis
- 221
8
votes
2 answers
In the American regionalism "Put 'er there, pardner!" why is the hand a she?
In the American regionalism
Put 'er there, pardner! (i.e. Let's shake hands)
why 'er ?
P.S. When someone is manipulating equipment, such as a crane or a hoist, to move a heavy load, someone directing operations might yell the command "Put 'er…
TimR
- 21,116
7
votes
1 answer
Why are ships always female?
I was reading wikipedia about a ship and it it's always refered as female. Is it unique to ships?
I've learn in school that words in english does not have a sex, you can call a cats and dogs as "it".
confiq
- 173
6
votes
2 answers
Is Warrioress a real word?
According to dictionary.com the definition of warrior is:
a person engaged or experienced in warfare; soldier.
a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics.
I see that the noun, person, is…
Ruut
- 281
6
votes
3 answers
Should I use "authoress" for a feminine author?
Often I come across the term "female author" rather than "authoress". Which is the correct usage? "Female author" sounds wrong to me as other words that end in "-or" take a sex.
Wes
- 242
6
votes
3 answers
Is 'liege' masculine?
'Liege' seems to most often refer to a man. Is that because most lords in history and fiction are men, or because 'liege' is a masculine noun? If the latter, is there a feminine counterpart?
ladenedge
- 495
5
votes
1 answer
Is villain masculine?
In India we generally use heroine as the female counterpart of a hero in a film. Is it grammatically acceptable? Further, is there any feminine counterpart for a villain either in tinsel world or in real life?
Syam Kumar. V
- 389
4
votes
3 answers
"Ladies and Gentlemen" beyond binary gender classification
Hearing the usual greeting on a train, I started wondering if there is already an established alternative to "Ladies and Gentlemen" that is applicable beyond the male/female classification. (For example, job adverts now often include m/w/x to take…
painfulenglish
- 2,450
3
votes
3 answers
Is English "genderless" or are inanimate nouns just neuter by default?
Some questions on ELU already touch on this subject, and they pose that English does not have grammatical gender which means that most of its inanimate nouns are referred to with it rather than he or she. I wonder if this is true.
When a language…
Bram Vanroy
- 1,267
2
votes
3 answers
Perception of subjects with indeterminate gender
Being German, I am used to getting information about the gender of a sentence's subject in the same sentence:
Meine Freundin mag Bücher.
Here it is immediately clear that it's a female friend of mine who likes books.
In English, however, many…
Florian Brucker
- 659
2
votes
2 answers
How to ask about a person's child when not knowing the gender?
I know there are a few questions like this, but I have always had trouble remembering whether or not a person's child is a boy or girl. When I meet them again, it sounds awkward and/or brash to say "how is your kid?" or "how is your child?"
Is there…
hparker
- 21