News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups. Parent comment

Re:London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups by StavrosK on Sunday May 22, 2011 @06:56PM (#2574497)
Ah, I've read this before, it's delightful, but I go one further. I don't actually mind the detached genders (Greek has them, the door is a she, the table is an it, the bench is a he), as long as you can guess it from the word itself somehow (in Greek, gender is determined by the word's suffix, the girl is still neuter but you can tell even if you've never seen the word before).

In German, you basically have to learn an extra bit of information for every word.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups by darklajid on Sunday May 22, 2011 @07:05PM (#2574519)
Ah, right. Yes, it's just arbitrary and completely disconnected from the words as far as I can tell.

In fact, we tend to argue about the gender of things here regularly. One well-known (and mocked) example is a very popular local hazelnut cream. People actually discuss if the brand name should be considered female or of no gender at all (not sure if anyone wants to claim that it should be male).

Since there's no real logic behind all these rules it's fair game to argue about it..

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups by eru on Monday May 23, 2011 @10:55AM (#2576106)
Are you talking about Nutella? Shockingly, that's actual Italian, and not local to Germany.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups by kahawe on Monday May 23, 2011 @09:24AM (#2575818)
It varies by region and dialect, also - very popular example is the soda pop "Cola".

In Austria Cola is neuter "it", in Germany it is female, which for me as a native speaker from Austria always "feels" like they are referring to the can (which is female in Germany and Austria).

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups by officemonkey on Sunday May 22, 2011 @07:01PM (#2574504)
It's more than a bit:

0 = der

1 = die

10 = das

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups by StavrosK on Monday May 23, 2011 @04:02AM (#2575284)
"A bit" = "some". I know that 3 > 2.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups by officemonkey on Monday May 23, 2011 @07:15AM (#2575587)
I'm sorry, I thought you were speaking technically. "An extra bit of information" could easily be mistaken for a computer term.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups by StavrosK on Monday May 23, 2011 @07:20AM (#2575597)
I guess it is, but I thought people would realise that I don't think that a bit has three states :P
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups by officemonkey on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @06:50AM (#2579364)
I knew you knew German had three genders, I just thought other people didn't know.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:London Is Gonna Be Pissed, But We Prefer Berlin for Startups by StavrosK on Tuesday May 24, 2011 @07:01AM (#2579390)
Oh, true. Good catch, thanks!
[ Parent | on HN ]