Please look at the words below regarding sex.
Male Female
manager manageress
dog bitch
tiger tigress
I am kind of surprised to learn these from grammar book. I am wondering whether "manager", "dog" and "tiger" can refer to female or not. Or perhaps use femal mananger to mean manageress etc?
Frank
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Moderator: Alan
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You've identified the male and female terms. It is common English practice however to use the male terms to refer to both males and females.
There are cases however where the female name is the
one used genericaally
example
chicken (female)
instead of rooster (male)
cow (female)
instead of bull (male)
and there are cases where the common name is neither
male nor female
example
sheep
ram (male)
ewe (female)
Jack
There are cases however where the female name is the
one used genericaally
example
chicken (female)
instead of rooster (male)
cow (female)
instead of bull (male)
and there are cases where the common name is neither
male nor female
example
sheep
ram (male)
ewe (female)
Jack