Identifying masculine and feminine by 'man', 'woman', etc

Certain nouns ending in -man refer to males: e.g. dustman, policeman postman, salesman Others, ending in -woman, refer to women: e.g. policewoman, postwoman, saleswoman A few, such as chairman_: can be used for men and women [> 2.10.9].

We tend to assume that words like model and nurse refer to women and words like judge and wrestler refer to men. If this is not the case and we wish to make a point of it, we can refer to a male model or a male nurse, or to a woman judge or a woman wrestler

Identifying masculine or feminine through pronouns

With many nouns we don't know whether the person referred to is

male or female until we hear the pronoun: My accountant says he is moving his office My doctor says she is pleased with my progress

The genitive

This applies to nouns such as: adult, artist comrade, cook cousin darling, dear doctor enemy foreigner, friend guest journalist, lawyer librarian musician neighbour orphan, owner, parent, passenger, person pupil, relation relative, scientist, singer, speaker spouse stranger student teacher tourist traveller visitor writer Sometimes we can emphasize this choice by using both pronouns:

If a student wants more information he or she should apply in writing However, this is becoming less acceptable. The tendency is to avoid this kind of construction by using plurals [compare > 4.40]:

Students who want more information should apply in writing

The genitive

Form of the genitive

Add 's to singular personal nouns: child + s child's

Add 's to singular personal nouns ending in -s. actress + s actress’s

Add 's to the plural of irregular personal nouns: children + s children’s

Add 'to the plural of personal nouns ending in-s: girls + ' girls'

Add 's to some names ending in -s: James + 's James’s

The survival of the genitive in modern English

The only 'case-form' for nouns that exists in English is the genitive (e.g. man's), sometimes called the possessive case or the possessive form. The -es genitive ending of some classes of nouns in old English has survived in the modern language as 's (apostrophe s) for some nouns in the singular and s'(s apostrophe) for some nouns in the plural, but with limited uses.

2.44 When we add s and s'

We normally use 's and s'only for people and some living creatures [> 2.48]. The possessive appears before the noun it refers to. However, it can be used without a noun as well [> 2.51]:

/'// go in Frank's car and you can go in Alan's The simplest rule to remember is: 'add s to any personal noun unless it is in the form of a plural ending in -s - in which case, just add an apostrophe ('). In practice, this means: