By Genders, Nouns

See my thoughts above on the plural issue. As for the question of 'he' when the gender is unknown, it is indeed very common. In English, if the gender isn't specifically known, it's generally assumed to be male. There is of course a lot of talk about this being sexist language,...

It's all to do with gender. Cactus and fungus are masculine nouns of which the proper plural ends in -i. Corpus is actually a neuter noun. Hence, the proper plural (nominative case) ends in -a.It's 'corpora' rather than 'corpa' because the genitive singular case...

Hi everyoneI just wondered if anyone could help - I have to write a profile of a chinese learner of English (completely made up). In it I must put any difficulties that the learner has in learning English as an L2. I have got so far:Intonation transfer from L1 may cause them to be perceived as...

Hello Verymaddhatter, and welcome to English Forums. 1. A pronoun's antecedent is the: A. pronoun itself. B. gender of the pronoun. C word that the pronoun refers back to. D. none of the above Answer is B. Sorry - it's C. 2. A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in: A....

1. A pronoun's antecedent is the: A. pronoun itself. B. gender of the pronoun. C word that the pronoun refers back to. D. none of the above Answer is B. 2. A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in: A. number. B. gender. C. usage. D. both A & B Answer is D. 3. The indefinite...

English really needs another pronoun for cases like this! Traditionally, if the gender was unknown, the masculine pronoun would be used. In a grammar book from 50 years ago, your examples would most certainly use "his." Today this would still be considered grammatically correct, but...

If this sentence originated in the U.S., then failure to make the number (that is, the singularity or plurality) of the pronoun (in this case "their") match the number of the noun (in this case ''seller") is the result of what is termed "political correctness."...

Hello, another English teacher here. I have been teaching English in China for about 2 and a half years now and also speak fluent French, decent Spanish and am learning Chinese (not as hard as you may think once you get the hang of those tones, easy grammar). Now I'll start off by saying that...

Hello again,Unfortunately,I've put one part in my previous post wrongly.Sorry for that.It would be correct to use the preposition "toward" in the following part:"But,if the verb indicates motion,or in plain english,if you are :going toward, flying toward, traveling...

Hi, I am a student and I am supposed to write an essay about grammatical genders in English. I've read a bit about it, but I still do not understand - do English use genders or did they only use it in the past (old English?) I would be really garteful if someone explained it to me! Thanks The...