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The Awful German Language (1880)

(faculty.georgetown.edu)
186 points nalinidash | 3 comments | 16 May 25 04:09 UTC | HN request time: 0.522s | source
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bashkiddie ◴[16 May 25 07:48 UTC] No.44002796[source]▶
Reading the article I guess Mark Twain never had a knowledgeable teacher. Is there anything hacker news readers would like to know about the German language?
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iamsaitam ◴[16 May 25 07:53 UTC] No.44002828[source]▶
Why do nouns have "random" articles attached to them? In latin languages like Portuguese the ending of the word tells you which article (masculine or feminine) to use, but in German only "die" has some rules. This is my biggest griped with the language and it's major flaw, when you pair that with adjective declensions and other sort of structures that rely on KNOWING which article to use.
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bashkiddie ◴[16 May 25 08:12 UTC] No.44002930[source]▶
From a foreign learners perspective, it is easier to just learn the article together with the noun.

But there are rules for 2/3 of cases. https://sprachekulturkommunikation.com/genus-der-substantive...

You can classify by suffix.

* -ung, -heit, -keit -> feminin, e.g. die Schönheit

* -ling -> masculin, e.g. der Flüchtling

* -chen, -lein -> neutrum, e.g das Mädchen

You can classify by category. Every alcoholic drink is masculin, except for beer.

You can classify by phonetic spelling. That is probably the closest you have to Portugese.

replies(2): >>44003891 #>>44006005 #
1. bmicraft ◴[16 May 25 14:34 UTC] No.44006005[source]▶
> Every alcoholic drink is masculine

- das Piña Colada

- die Bowle

- die Weißschorl (ÖD: der weiße Spritzer)

replies(2): >>44009498 #>>44010177 #
2. Krasnol ◴[16 May 25 20:24 UTC] No.44009498[source]▶
> - das Piña Colada

Been living here for 35 years, and I'd have said "die Piña Colada".

3. umanwizard ◴[16 May 25 22:03 UTC] No.44010177[source]▶
That’s especially maddening because Spanish does have gender, and “piña colada” is feminine and even involves feminine gender agreement between the noun and the adjective.