Nouns & gender
English nouns have no grammatical gender. No noun classes, no agreement, nothing to memorise: the table, the sun, the moon are all just it. The work gender does in other languages is done in English by pronoun choice for people — and by nothing at all for things.
What replaced gender
| language | says | English |
|---|---|---|
| French / Spanish / Italian | la lune (f), le soleil (m) | the moon, the sun — same article, pronoun it |
| German | der Löffel, die Gabel, das Messer | the spoon, the fork, the knife |
Articles and adjectives never change: a tall man, a tall woman, a tall building. If you've been agreeing endings your whole life, the rule is: stop.
Natural gender: pronouns follow the person
Gender surfaces only when you choose he / she / it / they:
| referent | pronoun |
|---|---|
| a man, a boy | he |
| a woman, a girl | she |
| a thing, an idea, a place | it |
| an animal | it (or he/she for a pet you know) |
| a baby of unknown sex | it or they |
| a person of unknown or unstated gender | they — Someone called. They didn't leave a name. |
Ships, cars and countries were traditionally she ("She's a fine ship"); today that reads as old-fashioned or affectionate — it is the neutral choice.
A few nouns carry sex, not gender
Pairs like king/queen, brother/sister, uncle/aunt, bull/cow refer to actual sex. Occupational -ess forms (actress, waitress) are fading; actor, server, police officer, firefighter, chair now cover everyone.
What English nouns DO mark: countability
The grammatical split that matters is countable vs uncountable, because it controls articles and plurals:
| countable | uncountable |
|---|---|
| a chair, two chairs | furniture (never a furniture, furnitures) |
| a fact, many facts | information, news, advice |
| a job, jobs | work |
| a coin, coins | money |
French une information, Spanish un consejo, German ein Möbel — all fine at home, all wrong in English. Say a piece of information, some advice, an item of furniture.
Possession: 's instead of "of the"
- People and animals: John's car, the dog's tail, my parents' house (apostrophe after plural -s).
- Things usually take of or a plain noun pile-up: the leg of the table / the table leg — not
the table's leg(possible, but of/compound is more natural). - Nouns stack freely as modifiers, singular and unmarked: a car door, a coffee cup, the London train. This noun-before-noun habit replaces many Romance de-phrases: une tasse à café → a coffee cup.
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