Basic Details
Word: Neuter
Part of Speech: Adjective, verb
Meaning: In grammar, neuter describes words that are neither masculine nor feminine, such as table, book and it. As a verb, to neuter an animal is to operate on it so it cannot have young.
Word origin: Comes from Latin neuter, neither, from ne, not, and uter, either of two.
How to Spell Neuter
Syllables: neu - ter
Tricky part: The sound new is spelt eu, as in neutral. The ending is er, not re.
Watch out for: nueter, nuter, neutre
Memory tip: Neuter is neither one nor the other, just like neutral; both begin n-e-u.
Usage Examples
Example 1: In English grammar, the pronoun it is neuter.
Example 2: Sanskrit and German have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.
Example 3: The shelter neuters stray dogs before they are adopted.
Fun Fact
German gives some nouns a gender that seems odd: das Maedchen, the girl, is neuter, because words ending in chen are always neuter.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Three words in the list are spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word.
1. common 2. nueter 3. masculine 4. feminine
a) of the male gender, like king or bull
b) of the female gender, like queen or cow
c) neither male nor female, like table or book
d) used for either male or female, like teacher or friend
Show answer
c) neither male nor female, like table or book. Nueter swaps two letters; the word starts n-e-u, as in neutral.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our teacher explained that nouns such as chair, river and bottle belong to the neutre gender because they are neither male nor female.
a) teacher
b) bottle
c) gender
d) neutre
Show answer
d) neutre. The ending is er, as in water, so the gender is neuter.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the word in the sentence and choose it:
Words like pencil, door and spoon are of rteenu gender.
a) tenure
b) nature
c) neutral
d) neuter
Show answer
d) neuter. Tenure uses the same six letters, but only neuter names a grammatical gender.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which pronoun is neuter?
a) him
b) she
c) it
d) he
Show answer
c) it
2. Which noun is of neuter gender?
a) umbrella
b) actress
c) uncle
d) lion
Show answer
a) umbrella
