A question for those who speak a gender-inflected language?

Question

Such as German, Portuguese, French, or Spanish.

Do you guys like actually think of objects as "male" or "female", or is it instinctive to just use el/la, o/a, der/die, etc. in the right place?

I mean, is a television like a woman, or do you just know to use the appropriate article?

This is interesting to me because in English most objects have no gender and they're just "its" (with a few exceptions like ships).

Answer 1

I'm a native Spanish speaker and I don't think of objects as a male or female.  For me it's just a category, it's just the way it is.

But since i'm a native it comes naturally.  

The general rule is if it has an "O" ending is masculine, "A" feminine.

Answer 2

In linguistics (and not in anything else), gender does "not necessarily" mean difference in sexes. There are some languages with as many as 8 genders... surely there are not that many sexes among humans. In our context, gender just means a "kind" of word, not necessarily its "s*x."

Answer 3

I just know the appropriate article.

example:

Das Buch = The book (it's neuter).  But I don't sit there and think.  I just know Das goes with Buch.  It's like.... the article is part of the word.

Or... like in French, "le livre".  (the book).  I just know it's masculine.

Answer 4

I speak Italian, and no - I don't. Now, it's not my native language, so that could be why. But "la" and "il" are just categories for me, not genders. It's just a way to say "the." At a certain point you just lose track of what gender is what - I mean, you have pay attention to both gender and plurality, so in the end, you're juggling il, la, lo, i, le, and gli and you just stop caring, haha.

Answer 5

I am a native of German and apart from things which actually have a gender ("die Hündin" - "the female dog"), I do not consider things male, female or neuter according to their grammatical gender. I do not consider casseroles female just because their proper article is "die" (the feminine article). I mean, casseroles are made of china. They are inanimate. How would they have a gender? :o) I think it is a bit silly to call "der", "die" and "das" genders. I just think of them as articles. Period.