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From the perspective of grammar, the female equivalent of son obviously is daughter. Simply putting it in the correct female form "Daughter, you know that How would a person often calling young boys "son" call young girls? I could definitely imagine him calling an adopted son son , while I don't know what such a person would call a daugther. If the person speaking to the girl is not related, a common thing would be to say "young lady, you know that If the speaker is her father, "young lady" may seem too formal.
Her dad would probably just call her by her first name, as in "Jenny, you know that This is, of course, assuming the girl is, in fact, a young lady. Usually, when someone refers to another male as "son", that male is a young man or boy. So, that is why I am saying that "young lady" would work for a female here. If the father talking to her daughter, he probably talk "Honey, that is not how you treat your brother. I think the closest and least condescending equivalent is Dear or My Dear.
It is more casual than Young Lady , but perhaps less cliche, which was one of the required fields. It adds an immediate connection, and has the same disarming effect that using Son in the way that you described does. Lass is defined by Meriam-Webster as:. And then there was Miss Jean Brodie, who, in her prime, simply addressed them as "Little girls," which today may sound offensive. Sage advice, given by someone in a position of authority to a female charge, most comfortably begins with "My dear Sign up to join this community.
The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Home Questions Tags Users Unanswered. Female equivalent of 'son' to call kids Ask Question. Asked 3 years ago. Active 3 years ago. Viewed 3k times. Asking because I am currently practicing my English by writing a small story. Have you consider "child"? Certainly "daughter" is used in many US sub-cultures, but a slightly more common alternative is "child".
