[OT] Grammatic gender

[Simon Albrecht]

On 14.11.2017 18:54, Wols Lists wrote:
> It's the same with gender - and that can also be confusing especially
> when making a diminutive. "Die Frau" (feminine), "Das Fraulein"
> (neuter). "Die Mad", "Das Madchen" likewise.

Actually, the base word is „Die Maid“. Mark Twain has famously and 
hilariously roasted the German language, partly for its use of grammatic 
gender :-)

>   Again, here English is very
> unusual because words do not have a gender (the objects they refer to
> may, but that's different ... :-)

How would that be true? It may seem so, because the articles for all 
three genders are the same, but words are referred to by ‘he’, ‘she’, or 
‘it’. In English the sun is male, the moon female (like in most 
languages, and unlike in German, where it’s the other way around). Only 
yesterday I talked with an American native english speaker about the 
grammatic gender of death; she said it could be all three, depending on 
circumstances…

Best, Simon