Words wholly or radically different are used to distinguish the masculine from the feminine.
(This is a matter pertaining to the dictionary rather than to grammar.)
+Direction+.—Learn the following forms:—
Bachelor, maid; buck, doe; drake, duck; earl, countess; friar or monk, nun; gander, goose; hart, roe; lord, lady; nephew, niece; sir, madam; stag, hind; steer, heifer; wizard, witch; youth, damsel or maiden.
The pronoun has three gender forms:—Masculine he, feminine she, and neuter it. [Footnote: It, although a neuter form, is used idiomatically to refer to a male or a female as, It was John; It was Mary.]
+Direction+.—Give five examples of each of the three ways of distinguishing the masculine from the feminine.
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LESSON 118.
GENDER FORMS IN CONSTRUCTION.
Gender as a matter of orthography is of some importance, but in grammar it is chiefly important as involving the correct use of the pronouns he, she, and it.