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It bothers me when cat memes refer to the pictured cat as "he," but I can tell from its coat pattern that it's female. I may know too much about cats. (piefed.blahaj.zone)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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For reference, some feline coat patterns require XX chromosomes.

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[–] 22 points 1 year ago (12 children)

It feels like in german that hats are mostly referred to as female ("she is a cutie") until proven otherwise (maybe) because the word for the species "Katze" is also the word for female cats "Katze" while males have the word "Kater"

Also a lot of cats are "Katzen" and never "Katers"

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    Germans gender hats? But I'm masculine and love wearing bunny ears! /s

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    The German language has three forms of the word "the" - the two genders, and neutral. As a kid living in Germany for a while, this gave me fits - things like doors, tables, windows, etc. are gendered, but I'll be damned if I could ever figure out any pattern to predict which would get which gender (or neutral).

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    The pattern is "what souds good"
    Die Tür -> sounds good
    Das Boot -> souds good
    Die Boot -> souds bad

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    "Sounds good" in language is usually something you're used to hearing, so it "sounds good" because you've already heard it that way & are used to it. Doesn't help one lick for those not already deeply immersed in hearing the language routinely.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    As a French speaker, I stg your genders for LE sun and LA moon don't make a lick of sense, and sound really wrong.
    DER Sonne is obviously a guy. Goes to the gym every day, lifts weights, big muscles, maybe a bandana. Picture a ladies' man from 1985 in a beach town, and that's him. And DIE Mund is the protectress of women.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    The problem is that what sounds good in German doesn't necessarily sound good in other gendered languages (romance languages, for instance), so if you know both you need to know multiple mutually incompatible lists of arbitrarily gendered words.

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