• sonnenzeit@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    No idea why lol.

    This always confused me, even as a native speaker so I looked it up some. Ultimately it’s because modern German is the confluence of multiple older, historic languages one of which came from a tree with a strict male/female rule for nouns while the other one’s grammar defaulted to a neutral case.

    As languages merge or adopt from others they often becomes a conjoined mess of multiple rules coexisting at the same time. A contemporary example is that in English the plural of a word is usually formed by attaching the suffix “s” to the singular form, aka house becomes houses. However there’s plenty of exceptions (mouse, mice) in particular if the words stem from a different language (octopus, octopi but nowadays octotuses is also acceptable). In that sense to people not privy to the etymology of words and who only study/learn the language per se there would be no perfectly accurate mechanism to predict the plural of a word.

    • sonnenzeit@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Also bonus content:

      singular: “das Mädchen” (neutral) - the girl

      plural: “die Mädchen” (female) - the girls

      So in the plural form you have to use a female article again, but the actual spelling of the word is unchanged. Go figure 🤷‍♂️ 🇩🇪.

      • Flumsy@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        “Die” is always the plural article:

        DAS Auto - DIE Autos / DER Baum - DIE Bäume / DIE Fliege - DIE Fliegen /

        • sonnenzeit@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Well at least it consistently unlogical. But wait: it actually depends on the grammatical case for example:

          die Mädchen = the girls das Haus der Mädchen = the house of the girls // the girls’ house

          So depending on context male, female, neutral articles are all used (der Mädchen, die Mädchen, das Mädchen) 🤷‍♂️

      • Holzkohlen@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        The simple past of read is read, but you pronounce it like red. I assume ever language on earth has its quirks.

      • Harrison [He/Him]@ttrpg.network
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s a misrepresentation of old English. Man used to be neutral, and was modified by were and wif respectively for man and woman. Wife comes from woman, not the other way around.