Masculine grammatical gender

Masculine (/mæskju:lɪn/) is a grammatical gender that occurs in English. English has some masculine nouns and some masculine pronouns.

In English, a masculine noun always belongs to the personal gender, never the impersonal gender, and within the personal gender contrasts with the feminine gender. Most people who are referred to using masculine nouns are biologically male, though many are not. Masculine nouns are also often used to refer to male animals. The masculine pronouns in English are "he,” "him,” "his,” and "himself,” and all these are third person singular.

Many words can refer to either masculine or feminine nouns - these are dual gender. Those that refer to masculine, feminine or neuter nouns are common gender.

A good test for a masculine noun is to consider which pronoun can be used to refer to it when restricted to third person singular pronouns; if only "he" (etc) can be used and “she" (etc) can’t be used, then as a consequence of gender concord, the noun is masculine. However, if either "he" or “she" can be used the noun is dual gender, and if "he,” “she" or "it" can be used then the noun is common gender.