Search results for 'tag:Genders' matching tag 'Genders'

Re: plural reference of some singular pronouns/words

Avangi — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:28:39 GMT

Anonymous
If you say a situation or person is hollow, you could mean they have no real ...

Hi, I'm not sure why you group a "thing-word" in with all these "people-words." The plural post-reference for a singular term is only used to avoid the awkward gender issue. In English, things don't have genders (except ships) so the problem disappears. (Ships are always female.)

"Someone left their coat in the car," is unquestionably okay for casual or conversational use. You can't be faulted for saying "Someone left his or her coat in the car," but you might be given a strange look. In formal writing, opinions vary. Unless you know your readers' preferences, to be safe you could stick with "his or her." Personally, I'd say "his coat," unless I were strictly in the company of ladies.

You might do some searches on the site to get other opinions.

- A.

Re: Male or Female?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:32:02 GMT

Hi,
There are some site on the internet where you can ask to a programme the gender of a name. Just write on google something as "to know if a name is male or female" or something like that, and you'll find some webs to know about it. I'm from Spain, so sorry for my English. Bye for now.

Victor

Re: other better way to express??

suhanii — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:35:35 GMT

I am saying this to a man, who thinks that sons are better than daughters, in a society where they discriminate between genders.

Suhanii

Re: live /lives?

Avangi — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:56:26 GMT

The important plural in your sentences is "those." People often misuse "their" as a singular, and "who" may be either singular or plural.

If you wanted to express the same thought in the singular, you might use the singular "whoever" in place of the plural "those." "I feel sorry for whoever lacks faith in his life."

this gets messy because of the gender issue. People (me, for instance) don't like to use "his or her," so they replace these singular pronouns with the plural "their," and say, "I feel sorry for whoever lacks faith in their life." This is a real mess. Note that "whoever lacks" has a singular subject and a singular verb.

If a man were leading two lives, the possessive pronoun (his) would still have to be singular: "I feel sorry for the man who lacks faith in his lives," just like, "I feel sorry for the man who lacks strength in his legs." "Legs" is plural, but "his" must be singular because "man" is singular.

Best wishes, - A.

Edit. About the ambiguity, my question is, where exactly is the faith lacking? Do YOU lack faith, or does you LIFE lack faith? For example, you'd say that YOU lack courage, or your LIFE lacks excitement. But "faith" can work either way. "I don't have enough faith in the way my life will turn out." "My life doesn't seem to have enough faith in it." (faith, as an ingredient in my life)

Make any sense??

Re: Oil

optilang — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:00:22 GMT

RayH

Mister Micawber
'Sitting on a gold mine' loses its effectiveness as a figure of speech

I have to disagree MM. "gold mine" is a well understood idiom and doesn't engender any confusion in the context of N2G's original post.

I agree with Ray.

Results 1 - 10 of 10 for "sitting on a gold mine of oil".

Although, I can see MM's point.

Re: Oil

RayH — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:57:49 GMT

Mister Micawber
'Sitting on a gold mine' loses its effectiveness as a figure of speech

I have to disagree MM. "gold mine" is a well understood idiom and doesn't engender any confusion in the context of N2G's original post.

Re: expectations, expectation

Avangi — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:01:20 GMT

Skrej
[I'm biased by the the phrase "causing him immense problems."

In English, if the gender isn't specifically known, it's generally assumed to be male.

talk about this being sexist language,

Hi Skrej & New2 - Do we now have a concensus on these three issues? (BTW, Skrej, sympathies on your "glaring error." I know how you feel.)

On the first one, I may be missing something, but I didn't take Optilang's post as being in support of the singular "expectation." I think "immense problems" cries out for the plural. We must choose between (1) one expectation; (2) two or more expectations; and (3) "expectation" as uncountable. Thus far no one's expressed much interest in number three. I'm inclined to rule out number one on grounds that if it were a single expectation the author would surely give us a clue as to what it might be. I get a sense that the stress is on the multiplicity and magnitude of the expectations (sheer cumulative weight) rather than their specific natures.

On the gender language business, and political correctness (if I may lump them together), I think the movements have failed miserably, and have done far more harm than good. The backlashes injure more people than the movements help. I see no light at the end of the tunnel. Important dialog and discussion have been completely stiffled. I've given it an honest try. But (for example) until someone comes up with a sensible, useful alternative to "he," I'm sticking with it, and I don't much care who's offended. I'm just weary of the futile effort. I see no results.

Best wishes, - A..

Re: expectations, expectation

Skrej — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:38:20 GMT

Mr. Wordy
This doesn't seem quite right. The subject of this instance of "is" is "Lewis Hamilton", not "expectation".

First, I should apologize, as Mr. Wordy is exactly right. Not sure how/why I made a boneheaded mistake confusing the subjects. Mea culpa. Thank you for correcting that glaring error, Mr. Wordy.

Optilang makes a good point as to reasons for choosing singular over plural. Without knowing the exact situation, both do work, as others have stated.

However, in my mind, I'm leaning towards the plural as more preferable (but not more correct) because I'm biased by the the phrase "causing him immense problems."

If the problems are "immense (and multiple ones at that)", I would sort of expect him to be hammered by multiple expectations, not just a single one. I suppose if the single expectation was very strong, it could lead to a lot of severe problems, but I still favor the plural.

New2Grammar

Avangi, I've been paying attention to why he is sometimes used without knowing the gender. Is this common? Or Do you know Anon?

By the way, I agree with your interpretation of what the questioner wanted. However, I don't see why the plural is more effective. Any explanation you can offer? Thanks in advance

See my thoughts above on the plural issue. As for the question of 'he' when the gender is unknown, it is indeed very common. In English, if the gender isn't specifically known, it's generally assumed to be male.

There is of course a lot of talk about this being sexist language, and some movements towards using non-gender specific pronouns, but there's of course debate over political correctness vs. tradition, blah blah blah. You may see things like 'he/she', 'they', or even the odd 's/he' being used in an attempt to avert sexist language, but it's still the norm to just use 'he' unless it's known that the subject is feminine, at least for the time being.

Re: expectations, expectation

New2grammar — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 03:52:40 GMT

Avangi
why he offered parallel singulars and plurals

Avangi, I've been paying attention to why he is sometimes used without knowing the gender. Is this common? Or Do you know Anon?

By the way, I agree with your interpretation of what the questioner wanted. However, I don't see why the plural is more effective. Any explanation you can offer? Thanks in advance.

Re: Helsinki pictures

Cool Breeze — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:55:02 GMT

Hi all

I'll upload a few more pictures that I have taken with my new camera. First of all, a couple of buildings all tourists take pictures of, the Cathedral and the Orthodox Cathedral called Uspenski. The Orthodox Cathedral was built in the 19th century when Finland was a part of Tsarist Russia. A German architect called Carl Ludvig Engel, who lived and worked in Finland from the year 1815 onwards, designed the Cathedral and many neo-classical buildings close to it. The railway station was designed by a Finnish architect.

The Cathedral

Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral

Railway station with its clock tower

The Teatern restaurant in Esplanade Park

Esplanade Park

The Parliament Building

This quotation is from a website called "Virtual Finland": In 1906 Finland's national assembly, the Eduskunta, became the first parliament in the world to adopt full gender equality. It earned that distinction by granting equally to men and women the right not only to vote but also to stand for election.

The Natural History Museum

There is a tram in front of the museum. New tram lines are being built at the moment.

An old tram that has been converted into a bar

This tram is no longer used for public transport other than as a moveable pub! Anyone can enter and buy a pint of Koff, which is one of the largest-selling beers in Finland. Of course you don't know where the driver will take you but you can get off any time you like. The Koff brewery was established in the 1800s.

A park close to my home

The same park

One more shot of the park

The swan, or rather a particular kind of swan, is the national bird of Finland. This isn't a picture of the right kind of swan but we only have these birds in Helsinki. The right swan looks more white and majestic and has a longer neck. It nests in the countryside only and avoids people. The one in the picture will eat from your hand. Food is what it wants!

Cheers, CB