Link to The Diminutive
Girl: Its Grammatical Gender in German vs. Its Sex
For German learners, one of the great mysteries of the German language is the grammatical gender of the word "Mädchen", which means girl. The word is neuter, "das Mädchen", neither feminine nor masculine although its sex is female.
On the other hand, the grammatical gender of the word for boy, "der Junge", agrees with its biological gender. And in fact, the grammatical gender of a German noun which refers to a person usually matches the person's biological gender: der Vater, die Mutter, der Sohn, die Tochter, der Lehrer, die Lehrerin, etc.
What's the reason for that seemingly discriminating grammatical gender of the word "Mädchen"? The answer might surprise you.
On the other hand, the grammatical gender of the word for boy, "der Junge", agrees with its biological gender. And in fact, the grammatical gender of a German noun which refers to a person usually matches the person's biological gender: der Vater, die Mutter, der Sohn, die Tochter, der Lehrer, die Lehrerin, etc.
What's the reason for that seemingly discriminating grammatical gender of the word "Mädchen"? The answer might surprise you.
The Diminutive
It's the diminutive! The diminutive is a form of a noun or name that expresses smallness, intimacy, or endearment. Diminutives are not very common in standard English in comparison with many other languages. Here are a few examples in English: doggy (dog), booklet (book), duckling (duck), kitty (cat), Johnny (John)
The suffix "-chen" is add to expresse the German diminutive, and in German, applying the diminutive to a noun means you have to change the grammatical gender of the noun to neuter. The word "Mädchen" was originally the diminutive of the antiquated German word "die Maid", which is of course feminine and means young woman. Over time, however, the word "Mädchen" had become the standard word for girl and lost its diminutive meaning. But it is technically still a diminutive, hence its neuter grammatical gender.
The suffix "-chen" is add to expresse the German diminutive, and in German, applying the diminutive to a noun means you have to change the grammatical gender of the noun to neuter. The word "Mädchen" was originally the diminutive of the antiquated German word "die Maid", which is of course feminine and means young woman. Over time, however, the word "Mädchen" had become the standard word for girl and lost its diminutive meaning. But it is technically still a diminutive, hence its neuter grammatical gender.
Fortunately, the grammatical gender of the word girl in German has nothing to do with the idea that in the distant past, girls were seen as objects by the Germans.
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