As you probably know it’s been a few months that I have been taking German lessons. In German as well as in other languages nouns and therefore abstract notions have a gender (I think, English is excluded because everything is neutral unless there is an explicit gender assigned usually by nature). One of the most troubling things when learning a new language, which has masculine, feminine, and neutral nouns is that there are no common rules about what is what.
For example, the word “der Mantel”, which is the coat in German. In Greek, it is “το παλτό” which is neutral. No matter how confusing this can be for a language learner it is really interesting when you spot patterns in this gender assignment. They reveal different qualities or perceptions of the people using the language. In Greece for example, the brand of a car is either neutral or feminine based on the perceived value and quality of a car. Expensive or good quality cars are usually feminine and the rest are neutral (e.g.Fiat or Peugeot are considered neutral, but BMW or Mercedes are feminine).
I had this discussion a few times with friends of mine and just a few minutes ago I realized that in all languages I know with genders in their nouns… music almost always happens to be feminine (If in your language it is different please write it in the comments). Have you ever thought why is that so? I have a possible explanation… music is usually a beautiful, sensitive, emotional notion… whatever is connected with those qualities cannot be anything but feminine. Or is it just because we all fell for her under her magic spells? Goodnight Tango
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