Hi Judy, That is determined by the word in front of the word 'door' These are the words der - male die - female das - child die - is also used in the plural form as for more then one. Katharina >I am sure this has probably been talked about before, but I have never >understood, and hope someone can explain to me. How to you determine the >sex >of inanimate objects, for the German language. How is it determined if a >door, or chair, for instance, is male or female? There must be some >reasoning to it, or is this just learned by speaking German as a child, and >passed up? Thanks for any help. Judy > _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com

The question was raised, how was the gender of inanimate(!) objects determined or arrived at? Why is it DER KOPF, DIE NASE, DAS BEIN? Why not all DER or all DIE or all DAS? Even I would be interested as a German born. HTG, Dieter ===================== ----- Original Message ----- From: "Katharina Hines" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2000 2:49 PM Subject: Re: [GERMAN-LIFE] Language > Hi Judy, > That is determined by the word in front of the word 'door' > These are the words der - male > die - female > das - child > die - is also used in the plural form as for > more then one. > Katharina > > >I am sure this has probably been talked about before, but I have never > >understood, and hope someone can explain to me. How to you determine the > >sex > >of inanimate objects, for the German language. How is it determined if a > >door, or chair, for instance, is male or female? There must be some > >reasoning to it, or is this just learned by speaking German as a child, and > >passed up? Thanks for any help. Judy > > > > ____________________________________________________________________________ _________ > Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com > >