This is driving me crazy: 'the chair' in german is 'der Stuhl', so 'Stuhl' is a masculine noun. But why why why is it masculine? Does the chair have a penis???? I just don't get it. Why not 'das Stuhl'?? anybody could explain?? Thank you very much
the grammatical gender has nothing to do with being male in that sense. It's just one of the things that makes german not easy to learn. But I can't tell you why it is the way it is, I am not a liguistic.
ohohoh, hm gender is not always about sex ... this is simply about different groups of words and how they act grammar-wise ... doesn't mean things are personificated. The gender groups came with the language ... they mostly match with Latin but some got twisted on the long way. So the sun is female, the moon is male and a girl would be neutral. Hope I have confused you still more
Thank you for your answers, guys. So, it is simply about different groups of words...I see. But are there any rules by which words are sorted into 'die', 'der' or 'das' ? I mean words without a distinct gender, like Stuhl, Heft, Bleistift,etc. ( der Mann und die Frau is obvious.) Pit, I really appreciate it if you may find some time to translate the explanation. I am just a beginner. Thanks a lot.
If you're a beginner, don't waste your time memorizing der/die/das. Concentrate on the grammar, everyone will understand you if you say "Die Mädchen ist schön", whereas the opposite is the case with "Mädchen das, schön ist". I somehow doubt you'll ever get all the articles right if you don't talk to German speakers every day. So if you're really serious, you might want to plan spending some time over here.
