32 Comments
"The" seems out of place for both "Nature" and "human" unless they are referring to an inner nature. In that case "The nature" could stand for basic instincts while "the human" could stand for reason or for human values.
Concerning the two 'the's, I agree. I'd also change 'human' to 'man'. I don't think 'nature' refers to human instincts here (although it could in principle). It just says 'nature (the environment) is stronger than man (with all technology)' - think of a natural disaster that destroys a city: humankind with all technology is helpless against the forces of nature.
True. I forgot to really look at the German sentence where it is more natural to give them articles.
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Could you say "humanity"? In US English, "man" is falling into disrepute in this sense.
In this case, "humanity" would also work although it is more commonly translated to "die Menschheit" in German. Note that "der Mensch" stresses more the nature of man (in the sense of Plato's ideas) than the group of all humans, therefore I feel 'man' is a better fit than 'humanity', but I may be wrong.
@Soglio: ah, ok. Now I understand. I didn't know that. Guess I'll have to adjust then, too ;-)
The singular they is actually becoming quite common. It's used by the BBC and Facebook, for instance. Those are major influencers.
@soglio: http://youtu.be/pQiA8XymmKM A nice presentation on the topic of language and gender. It's in German and maybe not that easy to follow. Although I don't agree with him (I'm embracing militant feminism far less than he does), he raises some interesting and noteworthy points. The talk was held during a hacker event, so the audience and his choice of examples sometimes are a bit peculiar ;-)
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@wataya. Thanks for the link. This goes a little fast for me, but I think my vocabulary should be more or less equal to the task if I work on it for awhile. Reactions when I'm fairly sure of his thesis. ;-)
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Interesting. A few years ago, I might have agreed with you, but at least in US English, more recently "man" is considered sexist, so we adjust. The changeover isn't as complete as the banishment of "Fraulein," but if I understand the latter correctly, it's the same basic idea.
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Adjusting isn't always so easy. Wait until you try to use a third person singular without referencing a gender. ;-)
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I agree, but it's still a little dicey in print; and it still makes a lot of people cringe. (Eventually, we may all get over it.)
When I was younger I tried to argue that we did have a third-person neuter pronoun and that we should use it, but when I referred to a generic person as "it" on a corporate memo I was rather severely criticized. ;-)
My impulse was to to for Nature is stronger than man, but thought the owl might bite.
In this case the owl would have given you credit for trusting your impulse: it accepted 'Nature is stronger than man.' ; )
If the expression "humankind" is accepted, why not "mankind" ? The nature is stronger than the mankind.
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Sorry, but in many circles "mankind" is as dicey as "man," and for the same reason.
Yeah, women do make for a crowded life boat. What was I thinking? Yeah, women are nothing to die for. Yeah, "dicey" Anything but that
I used "mankind" and it didn't accept, it said I should use "humankind" - whaaaaa?
Comparisons with wie and als are followed by a noun phrase in the same case as the thing you are comparing with.
Here, you are comparing der Mensch to die Natur, and die Natur is the subject of ist stärker and so is in the nominative case. Thus der Mensch is also in the nominative case.
Consider this pair of sentences:
Ich liebe dich mehr als mein Vater. "I love you more than my father".
(als) mein Vater is in the nominative case, so I must be comparing mein Vater to ich -- I love you more than my father loves you.
Ich liebe dich mehr als meinen Vater. "I love you more than my father."
(als) meinen Vater is in the accusative case, so I must be comparing meinen Vater to dich -- I love you more than I love my father.
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I went for "Nature is stronger than mankind." which was accepted - makes more sense to me.
