Change the gender of the underlined words and choose the correct sentence.
The duke and his son planted a neem tree in the village school.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → The duchess and her son planted a neem tree in the village school.
Both underlined words are masculine. Each must change to its feminine form.
- Duke → Duchess: a duchess is a woman of the same rank as a duke, or the wife of a duke.
- his → her: the pronoun now stands for a woman, so it must be feminine too.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: The duchess and his son planted a neem tree in the village school. — Incorrect. The pronoun his is still masculine. It must change to her.
Option 3: The duchesses and her son planted a neem tree in the village school. — Incorrect. Duchesses is the plural. The sentence is about one person, so it needs duchess.
Option 4: The princess and her son planted a neem tree in the village school. — Incorrect. A princess is the feminine of prince, not of duke.