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Henry74 Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Double gender

Hi again,

Can you please tell me how do you say it when there's a noun that has a form for each gender? For example,

a) Actor has the double gender
b) Actor has double gender
c) Actor has a double gender form
d) Actor has double form
e) Actor has the double form
f) Actor has a form for each gender

Thank you very much for your help.
H.
  

Top answer

Hi, Those versions are not correct. Say eg The word 'actor' has a different form for each gender. Actually, that 's not entirely true.

— Clive

  • Hi, Those versions are not correct.
  • Say eg The word 'actor' has a different form for each gender.
  • Actually, that 's not entirely true.
  • Today, the word 'actor' is often used for both women and men.
  • A better example is the word 'prince/princess'.
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15 Answers
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Hi,

Those versions are not correct.
Say eg The word 'actor' has a different form for each gender.

Actually, that 's not entirely true. Today, the word 'actor' is often used for both women and men.

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Some nouns have a special form for each gender.
Some nouns are variable according to gender.
Sometimes two nouns form a gender pair.


You can't exactly say that either of the two forms "has a form for each gender", can you?
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Thank you Clive for your answer.

I have a follow-up question, if I may.
Suppose I wanted to say, I'm not talking about nouns that have a different form for each gender.
Isn't really any other way for me to say the underlined part?
Maybe a vesion that I haven't proposed above, like double-gender nouns, double-form nouns, or any other that seems corre
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Hi,

Your new suggestions do not sound natural to me.

You could speak of words that can be inflected to express gender, but that's still a bit long.

Clive
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Henry74I'm not talking about nouns that have a different form for each gender.
If I may make a suggestion, how about one of these?

I'm not talking about gender-paired nouns.
I'm talking about nouns of invariable gender.

CJ
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CliveYou could speak of words that can be inflected to express gender, but that's still a bit long.
Hi,

Can I perhaps say gender-inflected nouns?

I have to say, the English language doesn't cease to surprise me. I'm used to seeing extremely compact wordings that would take subordinates over subordinates for me to translate them i
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CalifJimI'm not talking about gender-paired nouns.
Hah! I like that. It does look like what I was looking for.

[EDIT: That does refer to nouns like prince/princess, right?]

Thank you Jim!
H.
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Hi,
sorry for re-posting, just a small addendum.
How about nouns that have a different meaning in their feminine form than they have in their masculine one? I'm not sure you have those in English, but there are plenty in Italian. Would gender-paired nouns still apply?

Thank you very much.
H.
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Henry74That does refer to nouns like prince/princess, right?
"Gender-paired" a newly coined expression, so we can make it refer to whatever we want it to refer to.
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Henry74How about nouns that have a different meaning in their feminine form than they have in their masculine one? I'm not sure you have those in English, but there are plenty in Italian. Would gender-paired nouns still apply?
The only one I can think of, no joke, is "dominator/**********." But I suspect that "**********" is a rather recent coinage, and f
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