Re: The Birds and the Bees of Gender

Douglas Koller <laokou@...> wrote:

> The phenomenon extends as well, since there is a sort of "agreement"
> that occurs. "Many" and "a few" go with countables; "much" and "a
> little" go with uncountables (cf. "beaucoup de cafe'" AND "beaucoup de
> carottes"; "mucho dinero" AND "muchos idiomas"). "A lot of" can go with
> either (particularly in affirmative sentences). What I find especially
> interesting is that, while I assume Romance lang speakers are inculcated
> with the notion of "masculine", "feminine", and "agreement" in primary
> and secondary education, we never even touched on this in high school
> English (and judging from Nik's reaction, I take it my high school was
> not the exception). ESL books, on the other hand, devote at *least* a
> chapter to the subject.
That's true. At school we learn there's something called gender
and it can be feminine or masculine, and that's all. But when we
learn English, the U/C distinction is always noted, and also that
"agreement" with "many, a few, how many, how much," etc. I guess
most people never notice the oddities of their own language.


--Pablo Flores

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 The trouble with the rat race is that even
 if you win,  you're still a rat.
                                             Lily Tomlin