What was a feminine word in Old English? <SEP> Old English nouns had grammatical gender, a feature absent in modern English, which uses only natural gender. For example, the words sunne ("sun"), mōna ("moon") and wīf ("woman/wife") were respectively feminine, masculine and neuter; this is reflected, among other things, in the form of the definite article used with these nouns: sēo sunne ("the sun"), se mōna ("the moon"), þæt wīf ("the woman/wife"). Pronoun usage could reflect either natural or grammatical gender, when those conflicted (as in the case of wīf, a neuter noun referring to a female person).
What was a feminine word in Old English? <SEP> Old English nouns had grammatical gender, a feature absent in modern English, which uses only natural gender. For example, the words sunne ("sun"), mōna ("moon") and spoīse ("person/spouse") were respectively feminine, masculine and neuter; this is reflected, among other things, in the form of the definite article used with these nouns: sēo sunne ("the sun"), se mōna ("the moon"), þæt spoīse ("the person/spouse"). Pronoun usage could reflect either natural or grammatical gender, when those conflicted (as in the case of spoīse, a neuter noun referring to a person).