[suggestion] Show gender
Could something like this be added ?
CLICK or HOVER
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42 Comments
thats a good idea that could apply to several other languages as well. If not, maybe color code the words (pink / blue or something like that)
I agree this doesn't have to be limited to German course.
A while ago a lot of people wanted color coding and if I am not mistaken Doulingo was testing it on iOS app.
It seems the testing didn't go well and they abandoned that option since a lot of time passed after that and it wasn't integrated into the web version.
Unfortunately I can't confirm my claims since I don't have an iOS device.
This is shown in the reverse direction (i.e. when you look at the hint for a word in German), so it is definitely possible.
It would be very helpfull... I think that is the hardest thing to learn when you're learning german! =D
That would be very helpful. Sometimes you need to be able to review the genders.
Yes, but in German can help if you click on article or adjective before a noun.
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As you said yourself the first article is the correct one most of the times but not always. [first article in the dictionary hints is usually attributed to the first dictionary hint of the noun]
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By checking the article we are probably also signaling Duolingo that we aren't sure which case to use.
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Similar thing if we were to check the preceding adjective =probably also signaling Duolingo that we aren't sure how to use inflection.
Therefore I made this suggestion which would tell Duolingo specifically that we don't know the gender of the noun in question and tell us which one is it :)
Well, in this case it's actually showing the right one at the top - die Verbindung. Don't know if that's just chance though.
i just tested it a bit: die der das was the default order in all nominative words I encountered, including Tisch, but the article order was different in other cases, and I couldn't find a pattern there. Confusing.
Then it should probably be der, die, das: http://german.stackexchange.com/questions/3834/what-is-the-gender-distribution-of-nouns-in-the-german-language
Also, the contents of this are quite useful: http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa042098.htm
For example, "die Verbindung" follows from the first rule under "die" (assuming you know "Verbindung"...)
@alfonso - probably, I'm just stating the observed. point of my post was to showcase the selection of articles, particular word used in this case was irrelevant
but thanks for the hints link, it does help. I've seen some overviews before, but none this comprehensive
It is simply not true. I always use these hints (if I am not sure) and they are mostly (90%) correct. Maybe even more, but there are more words with same meaning. Maybe it is different if you don't use computer.
In French, most of the time the geneder is implied in the vocabulary suggestions. For example, the sentence "A small woman" once hovered over would show "Un[e] petit[e] femme" instead of "Un petit femme". However it will not always show this, and your suggestion would come in handy, so that we know the gender instead of having to google it.
Strange coincidence: when I viewed this discussion, I saw the "CLICK or HOVER" text, but the images hadn't loaded yet. I tried clicking it, and when I clicked it, the images suddenly loaded. I was really wondering how you could have set up an event listener... I didn't think JavaScript was allowed in comments.
But then I figured out what really happened.
Anyway, I agree with the suggestion. Voted up.
didnt it used to have this!? in the dictionary hints? or sometimes it shows up
When you learn a new German noun, you should learn not just the nomintive singular, but, at the same time, learn its plural and its gender: der, die, das. Then, when you meet it again in a sentence to be tranlated, you will already know its correct forms for the definite article and indefinite article and adjectives.
Yes, we should learn the gender and plural form whenever we learn a noun. But we may not get it the first time. (Or not remember it later.) I look up gender in a dictionary (hard-copy paper book) constantly because I don't remember them. It would be helpful if Duolingo gave both gender and plural form whenever we access their dictionary. If we knew the word we wouldn't be clicking on it.
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I also agree. It's necessary because the nouns have to learn with its definite article together and that not only in German needed.
Yes, I would love to have the gender for each noun listed, as well as its plural.
That would be very cool if they could color code the feminine and masculine words...
No, we would just learn that learning the gender of the noun is unnecessary, as duolingo always gives it to us for free. The fact that duolingo does NOT continue to give us the gender means that we need to learn it together with the word if we want to get through the next lessons without loosing our hearts. The current system forces us to learn, quite simply.
No, U. :p
The suggestion is for gender to be in the HINTS. If you wouldn't want or need to look at it, it would be neatly hidden, and you could challenge yourself all you want, if that's what works for you.
As for learning gender with the word, remember that you might never have encountered genders of alternative translations, or you had the word introduced preceded by "ein" or no article at all (you'd have no way of knowing the gender unless you googled or used the hints). Most importantly, unless you're a machine, forgetting happens, and you'll need to use those (genderless) hints sooner or later.
In any case I've seen so far, when the word is introduced, it comes with information on it's gender. My point, or "hypothesis", is that having the gender of the word as easily accessible would discourage from learning it. Very simply because it wouldn't be necessary. And so I think that this would reduce the overall german-learning of people using duolingo
That is an interesting point of view. But I don't think you have to worry about it because Duolingo tests all of its features.
I learned a new batch of words after reading this, and can tell from fresh experience that not only the information on gender doesn't always come when a word is first introduced, but it can not come at all.
I disagree with both explicit and implicit points of this theory, but dissecting it would be pointless and another topic entirely, so I'll step out. Cheers.
