Re: gender in French

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

> Bill:
>  If you or anyone can find such a grammar checker please let me know as
> I'm having the same trouble/problem in German with Der/das/die.
> Dick Giering
I am afraid I am as at sea with German grammar as any other normally
constituted person would be. I love the German language with a strange
intensity, but I can never learn it properly; I never get beyond the 4th
lesson, or so, although I can recite reams of Goethe with a quite good
accent. One thing to keep in mind is that not all the Germans speak such
perfect German. I had a friend who lived for years in the German village of
Theilheim, and she recalls an evening not too long ago at the local pub
when the general conversation turned to the gender of the common word
'butter'. None of the villagers was quite certain what its gender was!!! In
conversation, they generally elide, with a quick 'de' like the Dutch. So
you see, we foreigners are not the only ones who find the system
unbearable. In any case, getting the noun genders right is only the first
and by far the easiest step in German grammar!