I was wondering if there were any people here that spoke German, preferably fluently. And if so, I was wondering if you could help me out with a grammar question? This will be kind of long, but I'll try to make it as short as possible: In German, a dog is ein Hund. It's masculine. A cat is eine Katze. Feminine. But what if you are talking about your male cat or female dog? How does it work when the sex of your animal is opposite of the gender of that animal's German word? Meinen Hund heisst Karolin. That makes a little sense, but what if you're talking about them via pronouns? Do I say 'Er heisst Karolin'? Or 'Sie heisst Karolin'? Same thing for Katze. Is it grammatically incorrect to refer to my female dog or male cat at she and he respectively?
Sie heißt Karolin / Mein Hund heißt Karolin is correct. You could also say Meine Hündin heißt Karolin. Hündin is the female dog. But Hund is also correct. A female cat is called Katze, a male cat is called Kater. Die Katze heißt Karolin / Der Kater heißt Jimmy.
Thank you so much for the help. I can't believe we didn't go over the female and male versions of the animals. That seems like a very important thing to go over. I learned a lot from your post. Thanks a lot!
I do actually have another one: Is the sharp S a necessity in German writing and typing? I heard Germany was phasing it out because of how different it is across all regions, so is it inappropriate to just type 'ss'? I know there is a grammatical rule for when you use ss and when you use ß, but is it inappropriate to just forgo the sharp S altogether and automatically type ss? I guess the problem I have, aside from learning when to use the sharp S, is that when I'm writing I have no idea how to make that sharp S. It always comes out looking like a gelatinous blob of failure
That's a good question and many germans, including me don't know exactly what's going on with our spelling rules (is it the right word?) it's called heisst in the old spelling rule but in the new one it's called heißt. In 2006 they changed so many things/words. I can't answer if it is wrong to say heisst. It's complicated
That one is indeed a tricke one. It depends on the pronounciation. If you have a word where the part is pronounced in a long way you have to use the "ß". E.g. for a long pronounciation: "Fuß" (foot) E.g. for a short pronounciation: "Fluss" (river)
Hund= dog singular Hunde= noun, dogs, Tier der Hundefamilie RÜDE= Adult Male Dog The german language today is not the same as the german language of years ago. Old German is no longer widely written and spoken today. What you have today is a slang mix of several different languages and it constantly changes all the time.
