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[Dutchling]

Same in Dutch.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

girls are neuter too.

Only the small ones! Once they're fully grown (yes, innuendo, I know) they become female.

In Standard / High German that is. In some dialects females stay girls forever.

"Girl" being grammatically neuter is perfectly logical though, the word for girl is a diminutive form of an archaic word and diminutives are always neuter.

I feel like there's a hobbit joke in here somewhere.

[Descan]

In some dialects of English, females stay girls forever too.

"Eeeeey giiiiirl, how you doin'?"

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Yo gurl, I know you new roun heer, howzabout we go chill ova dere an I go gitcha sumpin t' drank?

-Exact transcription of something I overheard at a party once.

[BurnedToast]

girls are neuter too.

Only the small ones! Once they're fully grown (yes, innuendo, I know) they become female.

In Standard / High German that is. In some dialects females stay girls forever.

"Girl" being grammatically neuter is perfectly logical though, the word for girl is a diminutive form of an archaic word and diminutives are always neuter.

As if grammatical gender is logical in the first place!

English is terrible in many ways but at least we don't have that nonsense to worry about.

[Helgoland]

At least German spelling is at least correlated to pronunciation.

[GlyphGryph]

At least German spelling is at least correlated to pronunciation.

Yeah, I've noticed French doesn't seem to give a crap about this. They can just keep adding letters to the end, and yet the pronunciation of the word never changes. Whole sections, just dropped at random! Beginnings, endings, middles. Is something pronounced? There's no way to tell in advance, that's for sure!

[Descan]

* Descan looks askance at Gaelic

I have no idea what you are talking about. Nup.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

At least German spelling is at least correlated to pronunciation.

Yeah, I've noticed French doesn't seem to give a crap about this. They can just keep adding letters to the end, and yet the pronunciation of the word never changes. Whole sections, just dropped at random! Beginnings, endings, middles. Is something pronounced? There's no way to tell in advance, that's for sure!

Might be better to just surrender ;P

[Helgoland]

At least German spelling is at least correlated to pronunciation.

Yeah, I've noticed French doesn't seem to give a crap about this. They can just keep adding letters to the end, and yet the pronunciation of the word never changes. Whole sections, just dropped at random! Beginnings, endings, middles. Is something pronounced? There's no way to tell in advance, that's for sure!

Might be better to just surrender ;P

"For sale: French officer's rifle. Close to mint condition. Never fired. Dropped only once."

[Sappho]

Okay, so I've found a few mistakes in the German lessons, but at least you can report them and hopefully they'll get fixed. I do get a little annoyed for having correct answers marked wrong (or being told wrong answers should be correct), but then there was this, and I had to forgive them for everything:

[XXSockXX]

Okay, so I've found a few mistakes in the German lessons, but at least you can report them and hopefully they'll get fixed. I do get a little annoyed for having correct answers marked wrong (or being told wrong answers should be correct), but then there was this, and I had to forgive them for everything:

Er ist tot, Jim.

[Sappho]

[Sappho]

Raising this topic from the dead to see if there's any interest in doing this together. I kind of lost interest in Duolingo for a long while, but now I've decided to learn Swedish. I have a Swedish friend I'm trying to get to know better, and I thought learning his language would provide a good excuse for conversation. Much to my surprise, there is a Swedish for English speakers, though it's still in beta. It's not very helpful for pronunciation (dear lord is Swedish pronunciation strange and difficult) but it's been very helpful for learning my first words.

Anyway, the site keeps reminding me that I'm "all alone," and I figure it would help with the motivation if I had some "friends" on there to compare progress with. So is anyone interested in adding me? I think we can study any languages, and it will always show your friends' progress each day.

My username is airavj, if anyone wants to add me. I'm hoping to get at least one person on there to compete with!

[Helgoland]

I've been thinking about taking a language course next semester anyway, and a friend has nothing but praise for Duolingo - I'd be in in about a month or so. But not Swedish, probably - how is the Russian Duolingo?