Don't you wish English had an easier way to determine sex when referring to people?

[Shawn]

For example when you refer to a friend or cousin you can't tell if they are male or female unless you say something else to let them know the person's sex. The word itself doesn't give that information like other languages do. Why don't we have an easy way to determine the person's sex? I dislike how other languages like Spanish put masculine or feminine endings on words that describe inanimate objects but for describing people it's very helpful. Anyone else agree?

 

[aplefka]

No, I like Spanish more than English. I like having masculine or feminine overall.

 

[mwtgg]

No.

 

[ActuaryTm]

Matching in gender and number? Yes.

 

[kami333]

Yes. Though it helps in the long run since English grammer is hard enough as it is without femine and masculine.

 

[thomsbrain]

masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

 

[bandana163]

Most non-inflecting languages don't even use grammatical sexes (he, she, it). I think it's better that way.

 

[cavemanmoron]

😕

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

 

[MrCodeDude]

English > *

 

[mwtgg]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

A male desk? C'mon. What's the point?

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

A male desk? C'mon. What's the point?

It may seem unnecessary to us, but it's part of their language. Hate to break the news, but Spanish has been around longer than American-English. How does it affect you in your everyday life?

 

[mwtgg]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

A male desk? C'mon. What's the point?

It may seem unnecessary to us, but it's part of their language. Hate to break the news, but Spanish has been around longer than American-English. How does it affect you in your everyday life?

It doesn't, I just think it's ridiculous to assign gender to an inanimate object.

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: Supercharged
For example when you refer to a friend or cousin you can't tell if they are male or female unless you say something else to let them know the person's sex. The word itself doesn't give that information like other languages do. Why don't we have an easy way to determine the person's sex? I dislike how other languages like Spanish put masculine or feminine endings on words that describe inanimate objects but for describing people it's very helpful. Anyone else agree?

Yea, I guess it's easier with languages like french or spanish to know if it's male or female...

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: Supercharged
For example when you refer to a friend or cousin you can't tell if they are male or female unless you say something else to let them know the person's sex. The word itself doesn't give that information like other languages do. Why don't we have an easy way to determine the person's sex? I dislike how other languages like Spanish put masculine or feminine endings on words that describe inanimate objects but for describing people it's very helpful. Anyone else agree?

Yea, I guess it's easier with languages like french or spanish to know if it's male or female...

 

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: aplefka
No, I like Spanish more than English. I like having masculine or feminine overall.

Yep. Does make it easier.

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

A male desk? C'mon. What's the point?

It may seem unnecessary to us, but it's part of their language. Hate to break the news, but Spanish has been around longer than American-English. How does it affect you in your everyday life?

Who said it does?

But what's the point of having a gender attached to non-living things? It's just another thing to remember...

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

A male desk? C'mon. What's the point?

It may seem unnecessary to us, but it's part of their language. Hate to break the news, but Spanish has been around longer than American-English. How does it affect you in your everyday life?

Who said it does?

But what's the point of having a gender attached to non-living things? It's just another thing to remember...

Like I said, it's just part of their language. It's not like it's some hard thing to remember. And btw, I just realized, the example of a "male" desk doesn't work. Inanimate objects are ONLY masculine or ONLY feminine. A tree is "un arbol," and there's no such thing as "una arbola." So with that, I guess that disproves that it's something else to remember.

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

A male desk? C'mon. What's the point?

It may seem unnecessary to us, but it's part of their language. Hate to break the news, but Spanish has been around longer than American-English. How does it affect you in your everyday life?

Who said it does?

But what's the point of having a gender attached to non-living things? It's just another thing to remember...

Like I said, it's just part of their language. It's not like it's some hard thing to remember. And btw, I just realized, the example of a "male" desk doesn't work. Inanimate objects are ONLY masculine or ONLY feminine. A tree is "un arbol," and there's no such thing as "una arbola." So with that, I guess that disproves that it's something else to remember.

I think the only thing you disproved is that you've got good reading comprehension skills.

You had to remember that it's male (un arbol) as opposed to female (una arbola), didn't you?

Me? I just have to remember that it's a tree .

 

[MacBaine]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

A male desk? C'mon. What's the point?

It may seem unnecessary to us, but it's part of their language. Hate to break the news, but Spanish has been around longer than American-English. How does it affect you in your everyday life?

Who said it does?

But what's the point of having a gender attached to non-living things? It's just another thing to remember...

Like I said, it's just part of their language. It's not like it's some hard thing to remember. And btw, I just realized, the example of a "male" desk doesn't work. Inanimate objects are ONLY masculine or ONLY feminine. A tree is "un arbol," and there's no such thing as "una arbola." So with that, I guess that disproves that it's something else to remember.

I think the only thing you disproved is that you've got good reading comprehension skills.

You had to remember that it's male (un arbol) as opposed to female (una arbola), didn't you?

Me? I just have to remember that it's a tree .

:thumbsup:

 

[Rockhound]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

A male desk? C'mon. What's the point?

It may seem unnecessary to us, but it's part of their language. Hate to break the news, but Spanish has been around longer than American-English. How does it affect you in your everyday life?

Well then, English is the way it is too. Just like French, German, Japanese, etc. So why is the original poster suggesting we "change" English to be like Spanish? Doesn't make much sense unless you are just going to make everyone in the world speak Spanish.

 

[mwtgg]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

A male desk? C'mon. What's the point?

It may seem unnecessary to us, but it's part of their language. Hate to break the news, but Spanish has been around longer than American-English. How does it affect you in your everyday life?

Who said it does?

But what's the point of having a gender attached to non-living things? It's just another thing to remember...

Like I said, it's just part of their language. It's not like it's some hard thing to remember. And btw, I just realized, the example of a "male" desk doesn't work. Inanimate objects are ONLY masculine or ONLY feminine. A tree is "un arbol," and there's no such thing as "una arbola." So with that, I guess that disproves that it's something else to remember.

I think the only thing you disproved is that you've got good reading comprehension skills.

You had to remember that it's male (un arbol) as opposed to female (una arbola), didn't you?

Me? I just have to remember that it's a tree .

Someone just got owned.

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: aplefka

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
masculine or feminine overall is asinine, but i do agree that putting sex tenses on verbs is helpful, because you're actually refering to someone of that sex.

So all the other languages in the world besides English are asinine? Good call, Mr. Culture.

A male desk? C'mon. What's the point?

It may seem unnecessary to us, but it's part of their language. Hate to break the news, but Spanish has been around longer than American-English. How does it affect you in your everyday life?

Who said it does?

But what's the point of having a gender attached to non-living things? It's just another thing to remember...

Like I said, it's just part of their language. It's not like it's some hard thing to remember. And btw, I just realized, the example of a "male" desk doesn't work. Inanimate objects are ONLY masculine or ONLY feminine. A tree is "un arbol," and there's no such thing as "una arbola." So with that, I guess that disproves that it's something else to remember.

I think the only thing you disproved is that you've got good reading comprehension skills.

You had to remember that it's male (un arbol) as opposed to female (una arbola), didn't you?

Me? I just have to remember that it's a tree .

Someone just got owned.

No he didn't dum-dum. His whole point is that "una arbola" does not exist. If you are fluent in a language (ie you can think in that language in your head, rather than trying to translate in real time), saying "un arbol" or "durvo" is EXACTLY the same as saying "tree". There is nothing remember - there is only one way to say it! Also, it can be useful when refering to people or animals.

And you're not exactly arguing from a position of strength. English may be simpler in the gender sense, but it makes up for that (and then some) in many other areas. Also, as the OP demonstrated this simplicity also makes it harder for a person to express themselves more accurately.

 

[mwtgg]

Originally posted by: Martin
No he didn't dum-dum. His whole point is that "una arbola" does not exist. If you are fluent in a language (ie you can think in that language in your head, rather than trying to translate in real time), saying "un arbol" or "durvo" is EXACTLY the same as saying "tree". There is nothing remember - there is only one way to say it! Also, it can be useful when refering to people or animals.

And you're not exactly arguing from a position of strength. English may be simpler in the gender sense, but it makes up for that (and then some) in many other areas. Also, as the OP demonstrated this simplicity also makes it harder for a person to express themselves more accurately.

What about día or agua?

 

[CubicZirconia]

Originally posted by: mwtgg

Originally posted by: Martin
No he didn't dum-dum. His whole point is that "una arbola" does not exist. If you are fluent in a language (ie you can think in that language in your head, rather than trying to translate in real time), saying "un arbol" or "durvo" is EXACTLY the same as saying "tree". There is nothing remember - there is only one way to say it! Also, it can be useful when refering to people or animals.

And you're not exactly arguing from a position of strength. English may be simpler in the gender sense, but it makes up for that (and then some) in many other areas. Also, as the OP demonstrated this simplicity also makes it harder for a person to express themselves more accurately.

What about día or agua?

Regardless of the accuracy of his "only one way to say it" argument, you can't deny that masculinity/femininity is an intrinsic part of the Spanish language. I doubt native speakers waste a lot of time trying to remember if puerta is male or female. It's no different than the complexities that exist in the English language. You just get used to them.