This is arguably subjective, but I think making masculine and feminine words neuter is the only way to counteract the inherent sexism of gendered nouns. If you make everything masculine, you’re still tacitly supporting the previous categorization of masculine nouns as correct, and vice versa for making every noun feminine.
I don’t remember most of the grammatically correct genders, but when I was trying to learn them I had the distinct impression that stereo-typically manly nouns were masculine and stereo-typically womanly things were feminine.
I have heard nonbinary people find neuter as being offensive because it’s infantilizing them. At least that’s how it was explained to me.
I haven’t heard anything about that but that’s really interesting. Do you know how they prefer to be addressed?
I took a full-year German course in university a few years ago, and by the end of that I was probably A1. I’ve forgotten most of it since then, but I could probably relearn it within a few weeks. Every time I visit my German side of the family I try to brush up on it, but that isn’t very often.
Now it’s been 15 months learning daily and am at the B1 level. So not an expert just intermediate with more to learn.
Good for you. I feel like the hardest part of German (as a non-native speaker) is regularly practicing.
This is arguably subjective, but I think making masculine and feminine words neuter is the only way to counteract the inherent sexism of gendered nouns. If you make everything masculine, you’re still tacitly supporting the previous categorization of masculine nouns as correct, and vice versa for making every noun feminine.
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I don’t remember most of the grammatically correct genders, but when I was trying to learn them I had the distinct impression that stereo-typically manly nouns were masculine and stereo-typically womanly things were feminine.
I haven’t heard anything about that but that’s really interesting. Do you know how they prefer to be addressed?
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Interesting, thanks!
I took a full-year German course in university a few years ago, and by the end of that I was probably A1. I’ve forgotten most of it since then, but I could probably relearn it within a few weeks. Every time I visit my German side of the family I try to brush up on it, but that isn’t very often.
Good for you. I feel like the hardest part of German (as a non-native speaker) is regularly practicing.