Grammatical gender and noun classes
Does a noun belong to a group that changes other words?
Maana
Some languages put nouns into groups that make other words take matching forms. These groups may reflect people, animals or shapes, but a noun's group does not always follow its meaning. Some languages have several groups, while others have none or use different pronouns for male and female people without grouping ordinary nouns. Agreement is the matching of forms; Grammatical gender and noun classes is the grouping that can make that matching necessary.
Jinsi ya kuitambua
Compare nouns used with the same article, adjective or pronoun, and check whether those words change because the nouns belong to different groups.
Katika lugha unayojifunza
English nouns do not belong to masculine, feminine or neuter groups that make articles or adjectives change form. English distinguishes gender mainly in pronouns: he and she usually refer to people, while it usually refers to things and often to animals. They can also refer to one person whose gender is unknown or not relevant.
My aunt says she is ready.
She refers to the aunt; the adjective ready has no feminine form.
The door is open. Please close it.
It refers to the door, regardless of whether the word for door has gender in another language.
A customer called, but they didn't leave a name.
They refers to one customer without specifying gender.
Learners whose language groups ordinary nouns by gender may assign he or she to things that English normally calls it. Learners whose language uses the same pronoun for male and female people may confuse he and she.