This is a really interesting situation. I can be gender neutral in English but not in Portuguese.
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Replying to @gamesbymanuel
What are singular pronouns in Portuguese? We have he / she / it, but many people use "they" as a "singular person of unspecified gender".
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Replying to @randyhoyt
The equivalent to he/she, but not it. Everything is assigned a gender in portuguese (and most Latin-based languages as well).
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Replying to @gamesbymanuel @randyhoyt
Gendered language in Romance-speaking countries gets very confusing. "Why is a bridge male here and female there?"
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Replying to @DanielSolis @randyhoyt
It's not even logical. Take vehicles, for example: Car: male Van: female Bus: male Bike: female Boat: male Plane: male Train: male
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Isn't it masculine and feminine not male and female? Is there a difference between the two?
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Male and female are genders while masculine and feminine are adjectives. To me there's nothing about a car that makes it masculine.
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True. The arbitrary nature of the gendering seems like it may serve some other purpose/purposes. Some words swap genders bwt sing. & plur.
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It might have to do with the origin of the word, but it seems arbitrary now. As a native speaker it seems normal until you learn English.
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In French it is sometimes related to spelling (w/except), sometimes gender (w/except), sometimes other reasons. Definitely arbitrary.
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