English Grammar Step by Step

Fill in the blanks with the appropiate noun.

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1  He, she and they (plural) refer to people; it and they (plural), to things and animals. Here is a list of the most common masculine and feminine nouns. It is also worth noticing that it is used when the sex of a baby is unknown. We may ask Is it a he or a she? if we want to know the sex of a baby. As you can see, the baby has been included when possible.

People personify things (like cars) or animals when they have an affection for them. She is quite common with countries and ships: Isn't she lovely! (Referring to a boat.)

And last but not least, some words refer both to a man and to a woman: pupil. If we want to specify the sex, we add male or female, man or woman, and so forth:
     boy-friend → girl-friend
     male pupil → female pupil
     headmaster → headmistress (headteacher is possible both for a man and for a woman.)
     a man student → a woman student
     barman → barmaid
     he-goat → she-goat
2  Generally speaking, suffixes ending in -ess, -ette or -ix are avoided nowadays, ie we prefer "author" to "authoress" to refer to a woman.
3  It is quite common to use the masculine form to refer to a female animal when we are not interested in its gender. Occasionally, the female term may be used to refer to the male. For instance, "duck".
4  "Buck" refers to male animals, especially to deer and rabbits. "Doe" is the feminine term: a buck rabbit → a doe rabbit. See "stag" as well.
5  "Bull", "cow" and "calf" may refer to large animals, such as elephants and whales.
6  "Cock" and "hen" are used to indicate the sex of birds; "chick", for the baby.
7  In the plural, we use "children". See unit 12, section 10.
8  Words containing -man in their masculine forms have -woman in their feminine forms: policeman → policewoman. If we wish to refer to both a man and a woman, it is much better to use -person (because the use of -man is considered to be sexist by many people): chairman (male) chairwoman (female), chairperson (male and female). Sometimes, we do not even need the word "person": chair (instead of chairperson). Occasionally, we do not use"-person": police officer (a man or a woman), policeman (a man), policewoman (a woman).
9  The plural of "man" is "men"; of "woman", "women". See unit 12, sections 10 and 22.
10 We can have other combinations with "step-", like stepfather.