this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 year ago (50 children)

In German:

Man = male (der Mann)

Woman = female (die Frau)

Boy = male (der Junge)

Girl = neutral (das Mädchen)

No idea why lol.

Also I'm learning French and everything has a gender but I don't see any pattern to it at all. Pizza is female, books are male, a suitcase is female, hats are male and so on.

Also in French, the names of numbers go absolutely mental once you go above about 50. That's got nothing to do with gender but I want to complain it whenever I can.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I think it's das Mädchen because it's a sort of diminutive (by use of chen). But it's been a while since I studied German.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Afaik it comes from Magd, which is female lol.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

related to maid, mädel. confer "maiden" in English

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