Nouns: Gender — Important Questions

Feminine gender, because the pronoun 'she' is used to refer to Kitty

Step 1: We determine the gender of a noun by looking at how it is used in context, especially the pronoun that refers to it. Step 2: The sentence uses the pronoun 'She' to refer to Kitty the cat. In English, 'she' is a feminine pronoun. Step 3: This means the noun 'Kitty' is being treated as FEMININE gender in this sentence. Step 4: According to modern English usage, it is now common to refer to pet animals and domestic animals as 'he' or 'she' based on their actual sex, rather than always using 'it'. Step 5: Option A is wrong because animals are NOT always neuter — pets are often given mascul

Landlord → Landlady

Step 1: There are THREE methods of forming the feminine of nouns. Method 1: Add -ess (or a variant). Method 2: Use a completely different word. Method 3: Change a part of a compound word. Step 2: 'Landlord → Landlady' uses Method 3 — it is a compound word where the masculine part 'lord' is replaced with the feminine equivalent 'lady'. Step 3: 'Lion → Lioness' uses Method 1 (adding -ess). Step 4: 'King → Queen' uses Method 2 (completely different word). Step 5: 'God → Goddess' uses Method 1 (adding -ess). Therefore, only 'Landlord → Landlady' is an example of the compound word method, making Op

host : hostess

The pair host : hostess is correctly matched because the feminine of host is formed by adding -ess. The other pairs are incorrect spellings or are not the proper feminine forms given in the chapter. For example, king changes to queen, and duke changes to duchess.

It has gone out of use; 'poet' is now considered common gender

Step 1: The chapter has a special section (Section F) about words that have gone out of use. Step 2: The words 'authoress', 'poetess', and 'actress' are listed as words that have gone out of use. Step 3: This means these feminine forms are no longer preferred in modern English. Step 4: Instead, the base words — 'author', 'poet', and 'actor' — are now considered COMMON gender nouns. They can refer to both males and females. Step 5: Option A is incorrect because the chapter specifically says these words have gone out of use. Option C is incorrect because this is a general modern English rule, no