1.74 Nouns referring to males or females

English nouns are not masculine, feminine, or neuter in the way that nouns in some other languages are. For example, most names of jobs, such as 'teacher', 'doctor', and 'writer', are used for both men and women.

But some nouns refer only to males and others only to females.

For example, some nouns indicating people's family relationships, such as 'father', 'brother', and 'son', and some nouns indicating people's jobs, such as 'waiter' and 'policeman', can only be used to refer to males.

In the same way 'mother', 'sister', 'daughter', 'waitress', 'actress', and 'sportswoman' can only be used to refer to females.