Yeah, a lot of european languages have a three gender system: masculine, feminine and neuter
Proto-Indo-European, the language which most European (and some South Asian languages) originate from, had a three gender system
Even English used to have a three gender system before it disappeared in the Middle English period
Despite the name, the neuter gender tends to not be used for people, although in some languages (such as Polish) the use of the neuter gender to refer to non-binary people is gaining traction
When I studied German a bit for fun I gave up on trying to memorize the genders and just used “das” for everything. Yeah it’s wildly incorrect but still mostly understandable which is fine for me.
Yeah, but in English you don’t go around and label EVERYTHING with the other two genders (only if you’re a bit weird and pretend your car is a she or something) and our they is the same as the female pronoun (sie), which makes that unusable as well.
three?!
Yeah, a lot of european languages have a three gender system: masculine, feminine and neuter
Proto-Indo-European, the language which most European (and some South Asian languages) originate from, had a three gender system
Even English used to have a three gender system before it disappeared in the Middle English period
Despite the name, the neuter gender tends to not be used for people, although in some languages (such as Polish) the use of the neuter gender to refer to non-binary people is gaining traction
Yep. Masculine, feminine, and neuter. It’s annoyingly hard to learn. Plus all the other adjectives and such change to match. It’s wild.
When I studied German a bit for fun I gave up on trying to memorize the genders and just used “das” for everything. Yeah it’s wildly incorrect but still mostly understandable which is fine for me.
Just say d’. It’s not wrong, it’s an abbreviation for whatever it’s supposed to be!
Polish also has three. She, he, it/this.
I think most slavic languages in general, not just polish.
Polish also distinguishes “oni” (they he) and “one” (they it/she). Probably most sexist language I know
German is woke
It totally isn’t unfortunately, the gender neutral pronoun (if that’s what it’s called?) doesn’t work for humans.
The neuter pronoun (“it”) doesn’t work for humans in English either.
Yeah, but in English you don’t go around and label EVERYTHING with the other two genders (only if you’re a bit weird and pretend your car is a she or something) and our they is the same as the female pronoun (sie), which makes that unusable as well.
Why not though? Just because it sounds rude or something?