what is the feminine of a BULL?

Question

my son wrote - its cow and the teacher has marked it as incorrect. plz you people may help me.

Answer 1

The teacher is incorrect. Plenty of dictionaries list "cow" as being the female of the species. In fact, that's the primary definition. References below.

PS: those who say "heiffer" are mistaken. A heiffer is a young cow, of either gender.

Answer 2

Your son's answer was correct.
The feminine of bull is a cow.
If she belives the answer was heifer that is incorrect. A heifer is a female bovine that has not given birth. Once she has given birth she is a cow. Many people are very confused about cattle and believe that all cattle can be called cows. That would be like calling all humans women.

Answer 3

If you go into the really detailed semantics of the whole thing.. there is no female of a bull ..... as a bull is, by definition, a male specimen of certain species (and you cannot have a feminine male which is not still male). The question is, in itself, meaningless - on all but the most academic levels.

I'm thinking, however, that the question was not asked at this level... so the answer would be cow....

The teacher is wrong and if he/she cannot stipulate why... I would raise a complaint.... education of young minds is a big responsibilty and your son should be taught by someone who takes it seriously.

Your son is right .. praise him for that and teach him to question authority!!

Answer 4

A bull is a male with fully-matured "gonads." A steer is a neutered male cow. Cow is the neutral term and while I hear city folk say, "cows" that hurts my ears. The plural is "cattle" unless you know you've just bought 2 bulls or 3 steers.

Heifer is a young female cow that has not yet begun to reproduce.

A very young (suckling) cow is called a calf.

This, from very much a farm girl.

I'd say the teacher was pulling a joke/ trick question. "There is no feminine form of bull."

That's like saying "What's the feminine form of rooster." A rooster is a male chicken. A hen is a layer (laying eggs) and a poulet is a young, not yet egg-laying female chicken.

Answer 5

My mom grew up on a dairy farm, and there were bulls (males) and cows (female). The terminology isn't limited to cattle, either. It also applies to elk; a male elk is a bull elk, a female is a cow. Same way for a moose--a cow is a female and a bull moose is a male. I think that teacher should do some research. Here's what Webster has to say about cows:

Cow--1. the matuer female of cattle (genus Bos) or of any animal the male of which is called bull (as the moose)

Answer 6

the correct answer is cow everywhere I look have you asked his teacher what she thinks the answer should be.

Young cattle are called calves. A young female before she has calved is called a 'heifer' [3][4] (pronounced /ˈhɛfəɹ/, "heffer"). A young female that has had only one calf is sometimes called a "first-calf heifer." A castrated male is called a 'bullock' or 'steer', unless kept for draft purposes, in which case it is called an 'ox' (plural 'oxen'), not to be confused with the related wild musk ox. If castrated as an adult, it is called a 'stag'. An intact male is called a 'bull'. An adult female who has had more than two calves is called a 'cow'. The archaic plural of cow is 'kine' or 'kyne' (which comes from the same English stem as 'cow'). The adjective applying to cattle is 'bovine'.

Answer 7

Actually if the question was phrased as written here, the teacher was right to say the answer cow was incorrect.

The correct answer would be there is no feminine of a Bull - all Bulls are males.

Perhaps the teacher was attempting to get her students to READ correctly [I used to have a teacher that would do that]

Answer 8

Refer the teacher to: Enchantedlearning.com Cattle bull cow calf drift, drove, herd, mob
Animal Male Female Baby Group of Animals

Answer 9

It is a cow - your son is right. Get him to ask his teacher what she thinks the answer is

Answer 10

Cow, report teacher to the headmaster for three lashings, oh forgot that not allowed in schools now

For info Heifer is a Young cow