male grammatical gender vs masculine grammatical gender

[flyingwitch]

Hello.

I study German. If a singular noun is "der" in the nominative case, should I say in English that it is a:

1) male grammatical gender

or

3) masculine grammatical gender

or both?

There is the same issue with the singular nouns, that are "die" in the nominative case: female gender or feminine.

With the singular noun, that are "das" in the nominative case, there doesn't seem to be this issue: There is only the neuter gender term.

I am talking about the grammatical gender of nouns in linguistics, not about the the biological gender of people / animals.

Maybe there is a difference between naming of a grammatical gender of nouns, that are animals / people and between naming of a grammatical gender of nouns that represent nonliving objects..

Thank you.

 

[boozer]

...
I am talking about the grammatical gender of nouns in linguistics, not about the the biological gender of people / animals.
...

In that case - only masculine, feminine and neuter are grammar terms.

 

[se16teddy]

Yes, many Indo-European languages have grammatical genders include "masculine", "feminine" and "neuter". Male and female (sex) are separate concepts. There is a complicated relationship between sex and grammatical gender.

Some languages have grammatical genders that have absolutely nothing to do with sex. For example, I understand that in Burushaski the genders include masculine, feminine, animals, countable nouns, inanimates, uncountable nouns, abstracts and fluids. Grammatical gender - Wikipedia

I wonder if there is any mileage in regarding "uncountable" as a grammatical gender in English? Maybe it is a number not a gender.

I can't see him. ​

I can't see her. ​

I can't see it. ​

I can't see any. ​

 

[flyingwitch]

Thank you for your replies. So in this dictionary are they talking about gender of animals / people?

dict.cc dictionary :: male gender :: English-German translation

 

[entangledbank]

Note that we say it is of masculine gender (not 'a'). Or it is a masculine noun (or just: it is masculine). Speaking about grammar, the word 'gender' on its own almost always means grammatical gender. Although 'gender' is also sometimes used for 'sex' (or a related concept), this is not something you normally have to distinguish when you are specifically talking about grammar.