2.5 Gender

In English, gender is expresses regularly only in personal pronouns and possessive adjectives.

However, there are certain pairs of nouns, one for men and one for women; the common ones are found in the table below.

In Catalan, the plural of the masculine form can be used generically for both male and female. For example:

els pares = mare i pare

els fills = filles i fills

In English, this is not possible. The plural of the male can only refer to several males, for example:

fathers = pares (masculins)

sons = fills (masculins)

1. You must use both words, for example: My aunt and uncle came to see us. (Els meus oncles ens van visitar.) A great photo of the bride and groom. (Una foto ben maca dels nuvis.) 2. Normally we use ‘‘king and queen’’, but in formal contexts you will find ‘‘sovereigns’’, for example: the Catholic Sovereigns (els Reis Catòlics) 3. The generic term is ‘‘police’’, which is followed by a plural verb, e.g.: The police are coming. (Ve la policia.) However, we cannot use numerals withe the word ‘‘police’’. We have to say, for example: Three policemen and two policewomen (tres policies home i dues policies dona) Five police officers (cinc agents de policia) (Not: five police.)

Nowadays many people make an effort to avoid sexist terms, for example chairman (moderador), spokesman (portaveu), fireman (bomber). The politically correct terms are chair, spokesperson, firefighter, e.g.:

Mary/John will be our spokesperson. (La Mary/En John serà el nostre portaveu.)