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Is Computer Feminine or Masculine gender?

I got this from a friend and was wondering if this is true.

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.

‘’House‘’ for instance, is feminine: ‘’la casa.'’

‘’Pencil‘’, however, is masculine: “el lapiz.'’

A student asked, ‘’What gender is ‘computer’?‘’

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether ‘’computer'’ should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men’s group decided that ‘’computer'’ should definitely be of the feminine gender ('’la computadora‘’), because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible
later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

Before you accept their reasons, read what the female group has to say. This is, indeed, becoming more interesting

The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ('’el computador‘’), because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

So, which group do you think is correct with its analysis? As for me, I agree with the two groups oh :-d


March 7, 2006 | 6:45 AM Comments  1 comments

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sofya Sofya
March 15, 2006 | 6:32 AM
yay, this is so linguistically inquisitive!
I cannot help commenting - it's just so in accord with my former linguistic studies! I personally think that computer should be bi-gender, for I believe that both men and women maybe attracted to it to an equally high degree, as we may be attracted to a beloved one (no matter their sex). So I would reserve the right to chose the gender of computer for his/her actual owner/user. This would serve these incredulous bits of machinery so much more justice!

In Russian, computer is masculine. But men (especially IT professionals) often call it 'mashina', which is feminine (and also means 'car' - can you see the gender appeal analogy?), while women use the original word, computer.
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