English words that have gender

English words that have gender Posted by Gabriele on May 7, 2013 in English Language, English Vocabulary

English is not known for having gender specific nouns like some other languages (for example Spanish or French), but gender specific nouns do exist in English. Because English does not have as many gender specific nouns as other languages, one nice thing about English is that you don’t have to worry about gender agreement between nouns and adjectives. So, when you start thinking about how hard it is to learn English, just remember that you don’t have to worry too much about noun gender and gender agreement in English. (Learning how to do this in other languages is something that most English speakers find very difficult.)

There are a small number of words in English that do have different forms to indicate male and female gender though, but really these are very few. Other than gender specific words for some animals (like: buck and deer, gander and geese) and words like man, woman, girl, boy, mother and father, English has only a few dozen gender specific nouns. Below I have listed some of the most common gender specific nouns found in English. If a neutral, non-gender specific, form of the word exists I also listed that word too. If a neutral form of the word doesn’t exist, the male form of the word usually becomes the de facto neutral version. For some words, often words that are related to professions, if no female version of the word exists a neutral word has been created. Take a look at these and see if there are any new words you can add to your vocabulary.

Male	Female	Neutral
actor	actress
bachelor	spinster	single person
emperor	empress
hero	heroine
host	hostess
landlord	landlady
steward	stewardess	flight attendant
waiter	waitress	server
fireman		firefighter
policeman		police officer
mailman		letter carrier
salesman		salesperson

Tags: gender, words with gender

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About the Author: Gabriele

Hi there! I am one of Transparent Language's ESL bloggers. I am a 32-year-old native English speaker who was born and raised in the United States. I am living in Washington, DC now, but I have lived all over the US and also spent many years living and working abroad. I started teaching English as a second language in 2005 after completing a Master's in Applied Linguists and a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults' (CELTA). Since that time I have taught ESL in the United States at the community college and university level. I have also gone on to pursue my doctorate in psychology and now I also teach courses in psychology. I like to stay connected to ESL learners around the world through Transparent Languages ESL Blog. Please ask questions and leave comments on the blog and I will be sure to answer them.

Comments:

Aline:

Nice tip! =)
Cocotes:

interesting material to learn an improve English, Thanks a lot
Gerry Higgins:

Not very accurate.
There are a few english words that have gender. For example, “blonde” with an E is female but “blond” without the E is male. There are a few words with gender as well.

Your example of “actor” vs “actress” well EVERYTHING can have an “ess” or “ette” added on to make it femanine.

Sadly, if I were grading I’d have to give this page a D-.
- gabriele:
  
  @Gerry Higgins Gerry,
  Thank you for the comments and opinion. There are definitely English words that have gender, but most nouns don’t have gender specific versions in English. Also it is not true that you can add “ess” or “ette” to EVERY noun in English to make it feminine, for example ~~doctoress~~ or ~~doctorette~~ are not words in English.
  -Gabriele
zeyneb:

Hi there! i am a non-native speaker of english but a student of Language seciences-English at college. I am preparing my Master dissertation discussing Women and Men talk. i really appreciate this table obove it was of great help, in addition to the simple wording when explaining gender-specific and gender-neutral prescreptivism in English. Thanks again.
Gregory Chandler:

Alumnus for males. Alumna for females. Blond for males. Blonde for females. Brunet for males Brunette for females. English has a large number of gender-specific words. GREGORY CHANDLER
- Gabriele:
  
  @Gregory Chandler Gregory,
  Thank you for adding these three examples to the list!
  If you have any others you’d like to add please do.
  -Gabriele
- PHILIP FRIEDEL:
  
  @Gregory Chandler Thanks for the short list of inobvious sex-specific nouns. Today I discovered yet another one in the Oregon Shakespeare description of the play Shakespeare In Love about his confidant and confidante, Do you know of a more complete list these types of nouns?
Tiffany:

widow, widower
- Gabriele:
  
  @Tiffany Another great set of words to add to the list!
  widow (female)
  widower (male)
Lisa Bramble:

Bachelor /spinster.
Gregory Chandler:

landlord (male) landlady (female)
fiancé (male) fiancée (female)
Again, English has many gender-specific words. Cheers!!!
Gregory Chandler:

Sorry. Landlord and landlady are already on your list.
Willow:

Sorry but isn’t the female equivalent of bachelor, bachelorette? A spinster and a bachelorette are rather different as a spinster suggests an older woman who has never been married; while bachelorette just means a single woman
nick hudson:

king, queen
prince. princess
father, mother
brother. sister
uncle, aunt
bull. cow
cock, hen – and hundreds of others
Lee:

Recently, actor is viewed as non-gender specific; actress remains for solely females.
Vijay:

is there a specific site/place where I can look up the gender of words?
I want to know if the word ‘opportunity’ is feminine?
emily:

comedian/comedienne?

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