>After graduation, I took a liking for French language and did a short
>course
>in Alliance Francaise. What sounded odd to me was that there is no neuter
>gender in French. Everything - living or non-living - is either masculine
>or
>feminine. For example, a pen is of masculine gender and an eraser belongs
>to
>feminine gender! There is no logic; you merely have to memorise the gender
>for each object.
>
I commented on this to my German teacher, and she told me that for
someone who grows up speaking German, forgetting that Misthaufen is
masculine and requires a "der", "ein", "den", "dem", etc., would be akin
to an American forgetting that McDonald's begins with "Mc".  When they
learn it, they learn it as a part of the word; the gender is an element in
the same way as the part of speech: we all just know that "cow" is a noun,
while "bovine" is (usually) an adjective.

It's only really an issue for those of us coming from a gender-lacking
language.

Mike H.

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