Noun's gender, noun and verb concord

English makes very few gender distinctions. When they are made, the connection between the biological category 'sex' and the grammatical category gender is very close. Also some pronouns are gender sensitive (he, she, his, her). Generally, when there is no wish to make a distinction of sex, the masculine form is used.

Marking gender

1. Nouns morphologically marked for gender are formed by changing the ending of the masculine noun with the suffix –ess (actor – actress, prince – princess, steward – stewardess)

2. Nouns morphologically unmarked for gender but with feminine forms that may be a different word (boy – girl, gentleman – lady, monk – nun, sir – madam)

3. Foreign feminines (czar – czarina, don – donna, Sultan – Sultana)

Common gender

1. This is a large class of nouns which may be applied to both males and females. For clarity, it is sometimes necessary to use a gender marker (boyfriend – girlfriend, manservant – maidservant)

2. However, with many nouns we don’t know whether the person referred to is male or female until we hear the pronoun (My doctor says she is pleased with my progress.) This applies to nouns such as adult, artist, comrade, cook, cousin, darling, dear, doctor, enemy, foreigner, friend, quest, journalist, musician, neighbour, owner, parent, passenger, person, pupil...

3. Occasionally for living beings we have three words, one masculine, one feminine and one common gender: son – daughter – child, father – mother – parent, king – queen – monarch, ruler, boar – sow – pig, cock – hen – bird, fowl

Gender of nouns denoting animals

1. All nouns denoting animals may be considered neuter (referred to as it). In spoken language, however, there is a tendency to associate animals with gender (lion – lioness, tiger – tigress, bull – cow).

2. Sometimes he-/she- is used as a prefix (he-wolf – she-wolf). Sometimes proper nouns are used with the names of animals (jack-ass – jenny-ass, tom-cat – pussy-cat).

3. When the sex of the animal is not indicated, nouns denoting the larger and stronger animals are generally associated with the masculine gender, nouns denoting the smaller and weaker with the feminine. Masculine: elephant, dog, eagle. Feminine: cat, hare, parrot. But: canary - he, fly – he.

Personification of inanimate things and abstract notions

1. Moon and earth are referred to as feminine, sun as masculine

2. Ships and cars and other vehicles when regarded with affection are considered feminine.

3. Masculine gender is given to abstract nouns suggesting strength (anger, death, fear, war) while feminine is associated with the idea of gentleness and beauty (spring, peace, kindness).

4. Countries as geographical units are treated as inanimate = it. As political/economic units the names of countries are often feminine (England is proud of her poets.)

Noun and Verb Concord

Concord = formal agreement in person, number, gender or tense (or more of these combined) between two or more parts of a sentence. Concord is the grammatical relationship between a subject and its verb or a pronoun and its verb.

Grammatical concord

It is the most common type of a subject-verb concord.

1. General rule: A singular subject requires a singular verb (My daughter watches TV after supper.). A plural subject requires a plural verb (My daughters watch TV after supper.)

2. There is no subject-verb concord with modal auxiliaries which lack s-forms or imperative clauses. (She can do it. X She cans do it.)

3. The subject complement in plural takes a plural verb (What you caused are problems.)

Concord with coordinated subjects AND

Coordinated subjects with AND take plural concord (The trees and the church are reflected in the water.), however, it can take also singular concord when the subject refers to something that can be viewed as a single entity (The anxiety and anger is erupting in the family environment.).

Concord requires a singular verb if the first noun phrase is singular followed by with, together with, as well as, accompanied by. The phrases introduced by these expressions are not considered as part of the subject and so do not change the number, although they do suggest plural meaning. (Chancellor, as well as his staff, is hard-working. Miriam, together with her friends, is here.)

Coordination with OR and NOR

When singular subjects are joined by not only but also, neither… nor, either… or, the verb is in the singular. (Not only the governor but also his wife was present at the rally. Either the teacher or the class representative is expected to attend the meeting. Neither the boy nor his father has eaten.)

Nouns with a plural form + singular verb

a) The noun "news" (The news is bad today.)

b) Some diseases (measles, mumps, rickets, shingles. Mumps is fairly rare in adults.)

c) Subject names in -ics (linguistics, mathematics, phonetics, athletics. Mathematics is a compulsory subject at school. (reference is to an academic subject) But: His mathematics are weak.)

d) Some games (billiards, darts, dominoes. Billiards is becoming more and more popular.)

e) Some proper nouns (Athens, Brussels, Marseilles, Wales; the United States have a singular verb when considered as a unit. Athens has grown rapidly in the past decade.)

 

Nouns with a plural form + plural verb

a) Names of garments consisting of two parts (pants, pyjamas, shorts, trousers. Trousers are torn.)

b) Names of tools and instruments consisting of two parts (scissors, spectacles, glasses, scales. The word pair is generally used with these terms, e.g. a pair of trousers, two pairs of scissors)

c) A few words which occur only in the plural and are followed by a plural verb (belongings, clothes,  earnings, goods, remains, stairs, surroundings, thanks, valuables. All my belongings are in this bag.)

Collective noun + singular or plural verb

Some collective nouns such as audience, class, club, committee, company, council, crowd, family, gang, government, group, jury, team and union can take a singular or plural verb. Singular if we consider the word to mean a single group or unit (Our team is the best.) Plural if we take it to mean a number of individuals: Our team are wearing their new jerseys. The jury is considering its verdict. The jury are considering their verdict. This is called notional concord = letting the subject's meaning determine the form of the verb rather than the grammatical form of the subject.

Collective noun + plural verb

Certain collective nouns do not have plural forms, but they must be followed by a plural verb: cattle, the clergy, gentry, the military, people, the police: The police are investigating the crime.