Situation in English
In English nouns do not have a grammatical gender at all. English has only 8 words that have gender, all of them are pronouns:
he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its
And these pronouns always refer to persons or things, and which pronoun has to be used depends on the person or thing referred to. If it is a male person, you use he, him or his. If it is a female person you use she, her or hers. Gods, ghosts and similar non-physical entities are treated like persons, also pets and android robots (if their outward appearance is suggestive of an intended gender). There are also exceptions for ships, airplanes, cars and other machineries for which female pronouns are used, and sometimes even countries are referred to with female pronouns ("her economy is booming")
The point in the usage of these 8 words is, that their correct choice depends on a property that is not part of the grammar, but part of "real life". When you want to find the correct pronoun you do not ask for any grammatical properties of other words. You ask "Is it a person?" or "Is it a ship?" In English the grammatical gender of a pronoun never depends on the word that you use to describe a person or a thing. It doesn't matter if you say "lady", "girl", "queen" or "wench". You always have to use "she".
Comparing English and German
| Word type |
in English |
in German |
| noun |
has never a grammatical gender |
has always a fixed grammatical gender |
| pronoun |
gender depends on the thing/person to which it refers. |
gender is inherited from the noun to which it refers |
| article |
has never a grammatical gender |
gender is inherited from the noun to which it refers |
| adjective |
has never a grammatical gender |
gender is inherited from the noun to which it refers |
Another way to see this difference is to analyze the mechanism that provides a pronoun with a gender:
- In English:
The pronoun refers to a noun. The noun names a thing or person. This thing or person passes its real-file-gender directly to the pronoun without influencing the noun.
- In German:
The pronoun refers to a noun. This noun has a grammatical gender, and this gender is inherited to the pronoun. No real-life properties are involved.
Nouns and pronouns in German
So, in German it is possible to refer to the very same thing using any grammatical gender if there exists a noun for that thing with that gender:
neuter: Das Auto ist rot. Es gehört mir.
male: Der Wagen ist rot. Er gehört mir.
female: Die Karre ist rot. Sie gehört mir.
All three sentences translate in English to:
The car is red. It is mine.
»Auto« is the standard word for cars, »Wagen« is a little bit outdated and often used for some bigger limousines, and »Karre« is a shabby car. So if you have a rusty 15 years old limousine, you can use all three words. All three words can mean the very same automobile. But they have different genders.
Grammatical gender vs. biological sexus in German
To say, "biological and grammatical gender aren't connected" in German (quote from another answer) is just wrong. Of course they are connected. Almost all German nouns that are used to name male or female persons have a grammatical gender that perfectly fits to the biological sexus of this person. There are only a few exceptions, which I will write about below, but they are not many.
In fact the link between grammatical gender and biological sexus is so strong in German, that we have a serious ethical-social problem with our language which we call »Genderproblematik«. If you want to tell the profession of a person (let's say, "teacher") you can't do that in German without revealing this person's gender. Either it is "der Lehrer" or "die Lehrerin". But that's another topic that's too big to discuss here.
So, what are these exceptions?
Children
In German language children are treated like persons without biological sexus. And as a consequence the German word for child is a neuter noun. Let's assume the child is a boy and everybody knows this:
German: Das Kind liegt in der Wiege. Es schläft.
English: The child is lying in the cradle. He sleeps.
Diminutives
Standard German has two suffixes that indicate a small form (or something that just appears to be smaller) of something normal sized (German dialects have much more such suffixes):
- -lein
das Kind → das Kindlein, die Stunde → das Stündlein, der Tisch → das Tischlein
- -chen
das Kind → das Kindchen, die Stunde → das Stündchen, der Tisch → das Tischchen
And there are also some words that are diminutives from "normal sized" forms are have become extinct in German language:
das Märchen, das Frettchen, das Kaninchen, das Eichhörnchen, das Plätzchen (cookie), das Veilchen
But even if there exists no "normal" form, these words are still diminutives. And to these diminutives with nonexistent "normal" forms also belongs this very famous example:
das Mädchen
But the point is, that in German there is a very strict rule for the gender of diminutives: They are always neuter. Always! There is not a single exception. And this is why this is correct in German:
Das Mädchen trägt ein Kleid. Es hat lange Zöpfe.
The girl is wearing a dress. She has long braids.
About 50 years ago this version was the only one that was considered to be correct. But since then more and more people begun to use the female pronoun in combination with the neuter noun "Mädchen". When I was a child (born 1965) this version was considered wrong, but today it is perfectly fine to use it:
Das Mädchen trägt ein Kleid. Sie hat lange Zöpfe.
This is a very rare exception from the rule, that a pronoun must always match with the gender of the noun. In this case it matches with the biological sexus of the person, which is a relatively new an rare exception. I can only think of one other neuter noun where you can use a feminine pronoun:
Das Weib trägt ein Kleid. Sie hat wallendes Haar.
The word Weib is a synonym for Frau (adult woman). It is a very old word. In past centuries it was the preferred noun to name female adult persons, but today it has a wicked connotation and is sometimes used pejorative. But it is a neuter noun.
Fun fact: When you derive an adjective from the neuter noun "das Weib" you get "weiblich" which is the German adjective that means "female" or "feminine". So, in some sense there is no more female word than "das Weib" (Es gibt kein weiblicheres Wort als "Weib"). But still it is a neuter noun.
But note, that this exception is only allowed for pronouns. Articles and adjectives still must be used in the neuter form with words like Mädchen and Weib:
This is terribly wrong:
WRONG!!! Die Mädchen trägt ein Kleid.
WRONG!!! Eine kleine Mädchen trägt ein Kleid.
Only this is correct:
Das Mädchen trägt ein Kleid.
Ein kleines Mädchen trägt ein Kleid.
