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Thread: Personal Pronouns

  1. #1
    Stats Committee
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    Default Personal Pronouns

    I was speaking with a Spanish friend of mine today, and he refers to his yacht by the masculine pronoun. When I asked why, he explained that boat in Spanish is masculine.

    Does anyone know if this was the case historically, and Spanish sailors called their boats "he"?

  2. #2
    Admiral of the Fleet.
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    Sounds like one for Redcoat Dobbs.
    Rob.
    Last edited by Bligh; 03-26-2022 at 02:11.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

  3. #3
    Comptroller of the Navy Board
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    [RESTRICTED]

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    IIRC both Spanish and Russian languages do that; if I'm remembering my high school languages classes correctly the Romance languages (French/Spanish/Italian/?Portuguese) lack a gender-neutral "it" pronoun like English "he/she/it" or German "der/die/das." Not sure if the Slavic tongues are the same way, or just cultural association.
    --Diamondback
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    Historical Consultant to Ares, Wings and Sails - Unless otherwise noted, all comments are strictly Personal Opinion ONLY and not to be taken as official Company Policy.

  4. #4

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    Yes Dobbs, the Spanish and Portuguese Navios were all "He", even the ships with feminine names. I know, weird huh! A great source of information is https://www.todoababor.es/historia/h...-naval/buques/
    Last edited by Volunteer; 04-01-2022 at 10:01.

  5. #5
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    Roméo

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    I confirm being French that we always use the masculine gender when we name a ship because our word "bateau" is masculine. However, when the name of a ship is clearly feminine like "Ville de Paris" (city of Paris), we can for the sake of our ears say "La Ville de Paris" ("la" for the feminine way) but the ship is always masculine in French. On the other hand, if you want to speak about a specific kind of ship like "barque", "galère" (galley) or "pinasse" (pinnace), you keep the correct grammatical gender (here, feminine forms).

    (I take advantage of the opportunity to let you know that I'm still around, long time I hadn't written anything but I'm still around, guys, with the same pleasure )
    "Les passions sont les vents qui enflent les voiles du navire ; elles le submergent quelquefois, mais sans elles il ne pourrait voguer."
    "Passions are the winds that fill the sails of a ship ; they sometimes overwhelm her, but she could not sail without them."- Voltaire

  6. #6
    Admiral of the Fleet.
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    Good to have you in port again sir.
    My word, your very good explaination has made me realize just how complex your gender linguistics can be.
    Rob.
    The Business of the commander-in-chief is first to bring an enemy fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his ships close on board the enemy, as expeditiously as possible); and secondly to continue them there until the business is decided.

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