When dealing with the subject in question, we must pay attention to some peculiarities, since these make all the difference in the moment of written language.
We have our knowledge regarding grammatical norms, with all the rules and possible exceptions, it is part of building our linguistic profile.
For this reason, we will learn a little more about the formation of gender in relation to the grammatical class called «substantive».
when we talk about gender, we are referring to male and female. Let’s see your ranking:
biform nouns – They are those that have two distinct forms, both for the feminine and for the masculine.
Examples:
boy girl
cat Cat
dog – bitch
Two-common nouns – They are those that have a single form for masculine and feminine, but allow gender variation through modifying words, including articles, adjectives and pronouns.
Examples:
the student
the student
my fan
my fan
epicene nouns – They are those that have only one gender and indicate names of certain animals, being necessary to use the words “male and female” to designate them.
Examples:
male alligator
female alligator
male snake
female snake
super common nouns – They are those that do not have any distinction to designate the two genders, that is, a single term is used to represent them.
Examples:
the child
the witness
the individual.
Don’t stop now… There’s more after the publicity 😉
By Vânia Duarte
Graduated in Letters
BrasilEscola Team
Grammar –