Question

Identify the feminine form of the word:
Duke
a. Dukes
b. Dukess
c. Duchess
d. Dukina

Answer 1

Hint: Gender nouns are nouns which help us specify whether a noun is male or female. Some examples are boy-girl, uncle-aunt, etc. The male gender is called masculine and the female gender is called feminine.

Complete answer:
Let us look at a few examples before trying to answer the given question.

Let us take the word father. As we all know, father signifies the male parent. The feminine form of father is mother, who is the female parent. My father and mother are going on a trip to Vienna.

Now let us take the word lion. A lion is a wild animal. Its feminine form is called a lioness. We saw a lioness licking her cubs in the zoo.

Similarly let us take the word heir. An heir is a person who is about to inherit something such as a throne or a kingdom or a house from the person who was in charge of it before him. If the person who is going to inherit it is a male, he is called an heir. If the person who is going to inherit it is a female, she is called an heiress.

Now, let us come to the given word duke. A duke is a male person who is the ruler of a small independent country or holds a very high rank in a country. If the person is a female, she is called a duchess.

Thus, the correct answer is option c, duchess.
Option a, b and d are wrong because the words do not exist in the English language.

Note: There are some peculiar gender nouns such as drake-duck, horse-mare, etc. It is advised to students to read up the gender nouns. The elimination method can also be used to solve such questions since we can easily eliminate words such as “dukes” which is clearly the plural form of the word. It is of advantage to know which words exist in the English language since dukess and dukina do not exist at all. Building up on your good vocabulary is advised.