Editing English grammar (section)

====Gender====
{{Main|Gender in English}}
A system of [[grammatical gender]], whereby every [[noun]] was treated as either masculine, feminine, or neuter, existed in [[Old English]], but fell out of use during the [[Middle English]] period. [[Modern English]] retains features relating to [[natural gender]], most prominently the use of [[pronoun]]s (such as ''he'' and ''she'') to refer specifically to persons or animals of one or other genders and certain others (such as ''it'') for sexless objects – although feminine pronouns are sometimes used when referring to ships (and more uncommonly some airplanes and analogous machinery) and nation-states.

Some aspects of gender usage in English have been influenced by the movement towards a preference for [[gender-neutral language]]. Animals are triple-gender nouns, being able to take masculine, feminine and neuter pronouns.<ref name=Siemund>{{cite book|last=Siemund|first=Peter|title=Pronominal Gender in English: A Study of English Varieties form a Cross-Linguistic Perspective|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|location=New York}}</ref> While the vast majority of nouns in English do not carry gender, there remain some gendered nouns (e.g. ''ewe'', ''sow'', ''rooster'') and derivational [[affix]]es (e.g. ''widower, waitress'') that denote gender.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brinton |first=Laurel J., and Leslie K. Arnovick |title=The English language: a linguistic history |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-901915-1 |edition=3rd |location=Don Mills, Ontario, Canada |pages=194 |language=en}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!  Masculine !! Feminine !! Gender neutral
|-
|  ''man'' || ''woman'' || ''adult''
|-
|  ''boy'' || ''girl'' || ''child''
|-
|  ''husband'' || ''wife'' || ''spouse''
|-
|  ''actor'' || ''actress'' || ''performer''
|-
|  ''rooster'' || ''hen'' || ''chicken''
|}
{{Unreliable source?|date=May 2023}}

Many nouns that mention people's roles and jobs can refer to either a masculine or a feminine subject, for instance "cousin", "teenager", "teacher", "doctor", "student", "friend", and "colleague".<ref name="NOUN GENDER">{{cite web |title=NOUN GENDER |url=https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/english-grammar/noun-gender/}} ''EF Education First''</ref>

*Jane is my friend. She is a dentist.
*Paul is my cousin. He is a dentist.

Often the gender distinction for these neutral nouns is established by inserting the word "male" or "female".<ref name="NOUN GENDER"/>

*Sam is a male nurse.
*No, he is not my boyfriend; he is just a male friend.
*I have three female cousins and two male cousins.

Rarely, nouns illustrating things with no gender are referred to with a gendered pronoun to convey familiarity. It is also standard to use the gender-neutral pronoun (''it'').<ref name="NOUN GENDER"/>

*I love my car. She [the car] is my greatest passion.
*France is popular with her [France's] neighbors at the moment.
*I traveled from England to New York on the ''Queen Elizabeth''; she [the ''Queen Elizabeth''] is a great ship.