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Question about German words like Schüler | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| languagefreak Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5248 days ago 51 posts - 52 votes  Speaks: Russian, English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 11 18 January 2011 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I am starting to study German, and I am coming across some words like der Schüler/ die Schülerin or der
Student/ die Studentin. I understand that the first means the school student (he and she) and the second means the university student (he and she). However, what would be the plural? So, how would you say: -the school students (a group of males) -the school students (a group of females) -the school students (a group of both males and females) -and same 3 as above for Student/ Studentin Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Gosiak Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5127 days ago 241 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, German Studies: Norwegian, Welsh | Message 2 of 11 18 January 2011 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I would say:
- die Schüler (a group of males or males and females, a general term) - die Schülerinnen (just females) - die Studenten (general term) - die Studentinen (just females) :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5482 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 11 18 January 2011 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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-the school students (a group of males): die Schüler
-the school students (a group of females): die Schülerinnen -the school students (a group of both males and females): die Schüler Schüler is the gender neutral/all masculine plural. Hope this helps! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| litovec Tetraglot Groupie Switzerland lingvometer.com Joined 5132 days ago 42 posts - 60 votes Speaks: German, Russian, French, English | Message 4 of 11 18 January 2011 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
The modern trend for a group of both males and females is SchülerInnen A mixed gender group of university students is now usually described using this word: die Studierenden 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5482 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 11 18 January 2011 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Really? That's interesting. That would be the female form logistically speaking correct? All my friends from Nordrhein Westfalen say die Schüler (when talking about both males and females), so perhaps it's a Swiss thing or a southerner thing? This is interesting... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| litovec Tetraglot Groupie Switzerland lingvometer.com Joined 5132 days ago 42 posts - 60 votes Speaks: German, Russian, French, English | Message 6 of 11 18 January 2011 at 10:38pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
"SchülerInnen" it's written form, because you can't mark this big I in the middle orally. Probably, there's some other gender neutral expression, I don't know. For university students, it goes like this: der Student -> der Studierende die Studentin - die Studierende die Studenten -> die Studierenden However, the usage depends on institution.
It may be the case. Generally, Swiss institutions seem to go further in this direction with Bern folks being on the front of the language feminization :). They brought up the proposal to use "das Elter" instead of Vater or Mutter etc (link (in German)) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5299 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 7 of 11 18 January 2011 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
It is more about feminism (there is indeed something like "feminist linguistics") than about actual usage. I don't know anybody who uses this new politically correct form in everyday life, but in public, official language and mainly journalism it is not rare. Only in written texts can it be recognized as what it is meant. (When you want to use it in spoken language, if at all, you have to use something like gestical quotation marks (often to be seen at the "Simpsons"), or a noticable pause before "...Innen" or a funny face to indicate you say something strange but have to do it for the sake of political correctness. Or better say "Liebe Schüler und Schülerinnen", or just "Liebe Schüler", the latter is linguistically a neutral form, indeed, but we will see where actual usage and creative journalists finally come to a stable solution.) Feministische Linguistik Gender neutrality in English Edited by lingoleng on 19 January 2011 at 1:10am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5321 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 8 of 11 18 January 2011 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
It's not a new trend as the German Wikipedia article about the so called "Binnen-I" clearly shows. It was never popular outside of the feminist movement and is currently considered a spelling mistake in Germany by at least one spelling dictionary. For this reason, foreigners may want to avoid using it, unless they're outspoken Gender Neutrality supporters. Edited by Doitsujin on 19 January 2011 at 9:29am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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