pinbong
Junior Member
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2010
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- China
- Current Location
- China
Many thanks to Mr. Raymott for the lists of animal adjectives and "gender/baby forms" given. I was studying it carefully and two new questions came up.
(Please excuse the multitude of my questions. I'm a big asker. Apologies.)
1. Most "-ine" adjectives have no obvious connection with their corresponding animal nouns. Why did those animal words devolop so different adjectives?? Why aren't they just as simple as "cat--> catine" "dog--dogine" "ox-->oxine" instead of feline, canine and bovine?? Any etymological reasons??
And a more practical question: Any advice on how to best memorize them? Do native English speakers find them hard to remember too??
2. In the "gender/baby variants list", most animals have specific "male" and "female" forms, such as "gander" for "male goose".
For those who don't, there are "female" and "male" filled in the corresponding blanks, which I assume to suggest we can just call them "male or female something", such as: a "female snake".
But there're some animals who neither have "gender variants" nor "female/male" given in the blanks. Just a hyphen in the blanks. Examples include: snipe, sparrow, skunk....etc. --Why is it so?? In such cases, can you just call them "female snipe" or "male sparrow" too?
And, most importantly, when you're not sure if a certain animal have "gender variants", is it safe to apply the generic term "female something" or "male something" to all animals??
I'm not sure if I've made my questions clear enough. And again, please excuse the multitude of my questions.
Hearty thanks to all.:up:
(Please excuse the multitude of my questions. I'm a big asker. Apologies.)
1. Most "-ine" adjectives have no obvious connection with their corresponding animal nouns. Why did those animal words devolop so different adjectives?? Why aren't they just as simple as "cat--> catine" "dog--dogine" "ox-->oxine" instead of feline, canine and bovine?? Any etymological reasons??
And a more practical question: Any advice on how to best memorize them? Do native English speakers find them hard to remember too??
2. In the "gender/baby variants list", most animals have specific "male" and "female" forms, such as "gander" for "male goose".
For those who don't, there are "female" and "male" filled in the corresponding blanks, which I assume to suggest we can just call them "male or female something", such as: a "female snake".
But there're some animals who neither have "gender variants" nor "female/male" given in the blanks. Just a hyphen in the blanks. Examples include: snipe, sparrow, skunk....etc. --Why is it so?? In such cases, can you just call them "female snipe" or "male sparrow" too?
And, most importantly, when you're not sure if a certain animal have "gender variants", is it safe to apply the generic term "female something" or "male something" to all animals??
I'm not sure if I've made my questions clear enough. And again, please excuse the multitude of my questions.
Hearty thanks to all.:up:
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