gibberishtwist wrote:Why does Mädchen get a neutral suffix if it only refers to females? Er...It does only refer to females, right? Is this just one of those silly grammatical rules with no reasoning behind it? =) Also, thanks for the well wishes and extra grammar lesson.
Because the suffix -chen turns a word into the neutral gender. Der Mann => das Männchen (the man => the {small|insignificant} man), die Biene => das Bienchen (the bee=> the {little|cute} bee).
BTW: Other suffixes indicating gender:
-tion=female: Die Organisation, die Nation,... (well, I let you figure out the meaning of these 2 words
)
-heit=female: Die Einheit (the unit/the unity), die Mehrheit (the majority), die Wahrheit (the truth)
-keit=female: Die Eitelkeit (the vainness), die Einsamkeit (the loneliness)
-schaft=female: Die Mannschaft (the [sports] team), die Wirtschaft (the economy/the pub)
-er=male*: Der Verkäufer (the vendor/salesperson), der Arbeiter (the worker)
-ismus=male: Der Kommunismus, der Hinduismus (guess, again)
* there are exceptions to this rule when the Term does not refer to someone/thing who caused/did something (die Leiter = the ladder, but der Leiter=the executive)
Mark Twain kinda misses the topic with his complant about German especially since many of the words he uses as example are no longer used.
