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- Topic: German >
- "Die Studentin liest."
19 Comments
The German sentence is used in the German for French speakers course. In this case [edit: for the term "university student"], both German and French have gender specific nouns while English does not.
- Die Studentin liest. = L'étudiante lit. = The university student reads.
- Die Studentin hat eine Katze. = L'étudiante a un chat. = The university student has a cat.
773
Unclear what you are trying to say here, both nouns are exactly the same in both languages, I see no differentiation with the genders, as I think you are trying to describe. Care to try again?
My comment discusses the non-gendered noun "university student" in English and the gendered nouns "l'étudiante" and "die Studentin" in French and German, respectively. The same exercise is used in the German for English speakers course and German for French speakers course.
If you do the exercise in the the German for French speakers course, the translations between German and French use corresponding gendered nouns so the detail about gender isn't lost in translation.
But you do lose something in translation in the German for English speakers course. If your starting point is the feminine noun "die Studentin" in German, then your response in English is the non-gendered noun "university student" which applies to men and women. The feminine gender is lost in the translation to English.
If your starting point is an English sentence containing the non-gendered noun "university student", then there are two correct answers in German - a separate sentence each for the masculine and feminine specific nouns.
I also don't think that "the universe" should have been downvoted for his question. English does not have a gender specific noun in this case. But, gender specific nouns do exist in English e.g. widower/widow, actor/actress.
Thx for your question, hope I have clarified things.
We wouldn't need to clarify if we had kept the word 'pupil' instead of calling schoolchildren 'students'. This is just one example of how nuances are being eroded. Take the demise of adverbs or the present participals 'standing' and 'sitting', reported question word order as distinct from a direct question. All are shades of meaning lost.
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What is the difference between student and university student? It is the same, isnt it? I wrote student instead of university student and it did not take it..
It is the fashion to call pupils of compulsory school age 'students'. I first noticed this in the late 80's. In my opinion it aims to elevate the status of pupils but as you are demonstrating, more words are required to identify adult students. This is a kind of semantic arms race we see in other areas. (Toilet, bathroom, rest room.)