Dudgeon

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bamaboy56
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Re: Dudgeon

Postby bamaboy56 » Sun Aug 11, 2013 9:31 pm

And I
wonder if the French are into political correctness, since all
their nouns are either masculine or feminine?
It must be a Latin thang since Spanish likewise has feminine and masculine nouns. I've tried to teach my wife a little Spanish over the years. She gets frustrated over objects being gender specific. Sorry, that's just the nature of the beast.
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I'm going to change myself. -- Rumi

LukeJavan8
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Re: Dudgeon

Postby LukeJavan8 » Mon Aug 12, 2013 1:40 pm

I remember taking French and the prof early on saying there
were no 'neuter' nouns in the language. I was
flumoxed to the utmost. It soon became understandable,
but at first: wow!
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Re: Dudgeon

Postby Perry Lassiter » Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:36 pm

German does have neuter nouns, which only adds something else to worry about: die, den, or der?
pl

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bamaboy56
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Re: Dudgeon

Postby bamaboy56 » Tue Aug 13, 2013 12:25 am

In Spanish there are even some words that change gender depending on whether they're singular or plural. The word "agua" (water) comes immediately to mind. The singular "el agua" (the water) uses the male "el", while the plural "las aguas" (the waters) uses the plural female "las". There are other words, but that's the first one that comes to mind. I suppose every language has its foibles.
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I'm going to change myself. -- Rumi

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Slava
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Re: Dudgeon

Postby Slava » Tue Aug 13, 2013 12:26 am

To add to the confusion, Russian has a plural for one. :shock:
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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call_copse
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Re: Dudgeon

Postby call_copse » Tue Aug 13, 2013 6:57 am

My wife occasionally struggles with his and hers and she and he, as Swahili does not have these concepts. The possessives etc are all gender neutral - I imagine that makes life a little easier.
Iain

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Re: Dudgeon

Postby Perry Lassiter » Tue Aug 13, 2013 3:44 pm

In American PC, we authors try to avoid the generic "he" in a number of ways. Often we write with "they," meaning whoever the person is of whatever gender. Some use he or she, and others alternate he and she, either method jarring me. I often end up recasting the sentence to avoid the personal pronoun entirely.
pl

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Re: Dudgeon

Postby MTC » Wed Aug 14, 2013 9:24 pm

Here's a piece about the "he, she, or they" controversy from Oxford Dictionaries:

http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/he- ... ersus-they

If we were all neutered it might be easier.

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Re: Dudgeon

Postby Slava » Wed Aug 14, 2013 9:33 pm

Here's a piece about the "he, she, or they" controversy from Oxford Dictionaries:

http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/he- ... ersus-they

If we were all neutered it might be easier.
It would most definitely cut down on the excess population.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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Re: Dudgeon

Postby Perry Lassiter » Wed Aug 14, 2013 10:50 pm

If we were all neutered, only some things would be easier.
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Re: Dudgeon

Postby LukeJavan8 » Thu Aug 15, 2013 3:23 pm

I'm not game for that idea.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Re: Dudgeon

Postby MTC » Thu Aug 15, 2013 7:47 pm

Yes, the surgical cure is far worse than the grammatical disease.
Just another twisted effort at humor on my part. In fact, I have developed an orthopedic condition as a result of such "twisted" efforts.

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Re: Dudgeon

Postby Perry Lassiter » Fri Aug 16, 2013 2:08 pm

Slava, how does the plural one in Russian work? When would one use it?
pl

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Re: Dudgeon

Postby Slava » Fri Aug 16, 2013 2:17 pm

Slava, how does the plural one in Russian work? When would one use it?
Glasses, ie spectacles, are ochki, so you could have odni ochki.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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Re: Dudgeon

Postby LukeJavan8 » Fri Aug 16, 2013 5:55 pm

Odni ochki: I don't think we'd better go there, nope.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----


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