Denys strikes a powerful chord about how noun genders are determined in
French, if they really are.

> The determination of gender is highly subjective, in French
> at least, and if
> there is any specific mechanism used to determine the gender,
> I am not aware
> of it.

It's not a mechanism, Denys. It's not random determination either. It's a
subtlety of our language that I guess is very hard for non-native speakers
to master.

And Jeff very correctly said that, in French, nouns are supposed to be
either masculine ("un autobus") or feminine ("une automobile"). Neutral is
almost unknown in my language. And, even more surprisingly, some nouns seem
to obey no specific rule. For instance, speaking of automobiles, most of
them are really feminine ("une Mustang", "une Cadillac", "une Corvette")
with ONE exception : "un Range Rover".

Why the heck is the Range Rover masculine ? Because it looks like a truck,
which is masculine in French ("un camion") ? Does anyone has a valid
explanation to offer ? I found a few really weird ones, but most of them
would require not-so-printable language.

> On the other hand, let me give would-be French
> speakers a hint;
> whatever gender you think an object or thing has, use the
> reverse in French.
> You will be far more accurate than you think.

Denys knows what he talks about. For obvious reasons, his French is fluent.

> Kind regards,

<joke_time>
Hmmm ... Let me add that "regards" in English would be translated as
"considerations" in French, whereas "regards" in French would be translated
as "looks" in English. Now, in German, "ein Kind" is a kid. So if we blend
all these languages together (English + French + German), does "kind
regards" means that a kid is looking, or that we should have consideration
for the kid ?
</joke_time>

OK, everyone still following ;-) ?

> Denys. . .

Christian

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