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- "The boy and the girl"
"The boy and the girl"
Translation:Der Junge und das Mädchen
139 Comments
You are right, but 'das Mädchen' is a diminutive word. 'das Mädchen' comes from the archaic word 'die Magd'.
All nouns with diminutive endings like '-chen' and '-lein' are neutral, even if their original gender is not.
Examples:
der Hund - das Hündchen | die Katze - das Kätzchen
der Mann - das Männchen | der Mann - das Männlein
die Frau - das Frauchen | die Frau - das Fräulein
(Many words can have both endings that sometimes have different meanings or connotations.)
Now here gender is difficult: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1) "Das Kind" is gender neutral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (2) Das Mädchen is a diminutive form meaning it is made "smaller" (it comes from the nowadays rarely used word Magd) and diminutives are always neuter in german (so "das") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3) Junge is actually an adjective used as a noun. When german got standardized, there was probably a problem with the word boy (I do not know what), so they just took "der Junge" meaning "the young male" if you say "die Junge", you would refer to a young female, and "das Junge" would be the child of an animal
Now here gender is difficult: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1) "Das Kind" is gender neutral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (2) Das Mädchen is a diminutive form meaning it is made "smaller" (it comes from the nowadays rarely used word Magd) and diminutives are always neuter in german (so "das") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3) Junge is actually an adjective used as a noun. When german got standardized, there was probably a problem with the word boy (I do not know what), so they just took "der Junge" meaning "the young male" if you say "die Junge", you would refer to a young female, and "das Junge" would be the child of an animal
259
how come das is used for mädchen and kind but not also for junge if das is supposed to be neutral while der is masculine?
Now here gender is difficult: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1) "Das Kind" is gender neutral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (2) Das Mädchen is a diminutive form meaning it is made "smaller" (it comes from the nowadays rarely used word Magd) and diminutives are always neuter in german (so "das") . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (3) Junge is actually an adjective used as a noun. When german got standardized, there was probably a problem with the word boy (I do not know what), so they just took "der Junge" meaning "the young male" if you say "die Junge", you would refer to a young female, and "das Junge" would be the child of an animal
138
I'm not a native German speaker and so I don't know for sure, but I can't see why "die junge Frau" shouldn't be used for "the girl".
138
You can replace the umlaut by typing an "e" immediately after the vowel the umlaut would go over, e.g. "das Maedchen"
You can look up the following YouTubers for help with German: Ikenna (knows several other languages so I can't guarantee he has ONLY German videos but still a good YouTuber) Your German Teacher Luzi (or just YourGermanTeacher). I also like Easy German.
If you want a textbook, I can recommend: German Grammar Drills (McGraw Hill), Complete German (Teach Yourself), and German Tutor (Teach yourself)
you can also just search on YouTube: German Grammar Drills (your level here [ex: A1, B2, C1]) and you should find some videos on grammar.
The problem I see in your comment is that you want to learn easily and efficiently, but that is not the best way to go about learning a new language. If you want more about this topic, I recommend you see Luca Lamperiello's video "The Absolute Best Way to Learn a Language", he gives some very good insight about language learning.
I hope this comment finds you well, and that you may take some things from it that will help you as you go on with your learning!
Edit: just so you know I am DEFINITELY not a professional German speaker or teacher, so if you still have any questions, don't be afraid to comment your questions on one of these user's posts: mizinamo, Wataya, sarefo, christian, myra, sommerleid, Julika, or anyone who has a moderator rank!