LA WEB DE READING COMPREHENSION PREFERIDA POR LOS HISPANOHABLANTES

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COMPUTER GENDER

Orly Borges Personal Collection

Is computer in French a
feminine or masculine noun?

A language instructor was explaining to her class that nouns in French, unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine.
"House," in French, is feminine - "la maison."
"Pencil," in French, is masculine "le crayon."
One puzzled student asked, "What gender is Computer?"
The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in her French dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two groups appropriately enough by gender and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be a masculine or feminine noun.
Both groups were required to give four reasons for their recommendation.

The boy's group decided that computers should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer"), because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is absolutely incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval;
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your salary on accessories for it.

The girl's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("le computer"), because:
1. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but they are still clueless;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem;
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

Source: Orly Borges Personal Collection (Contributed by Roberto Fernández Acevedo)

GLOSSARY

unlike: different, not like (al revés de)
English counterparts: equivalents in English (equivalentes en inglés)
puzzled: perplexed, bewildered (desconcertado)
gender: gramatical category, masculine or feminine (género gramatical)
split: divided (dividió)
both groups were required to give: the language instructor asked them to give (a ambos grupos se les solicitó que dieran) < IDIOMATIC PASSIVE VOICE
retrieval: recovery of information from the computer's memory (recuperación)
commitment: engagement (compromiso)

to turn them on: to excite them sexually (double-sensed with "switch on" or "start something by turning a switch") (excitar sexualmente, en lugar de encender)
data: information (datos, información acumulada)
clueless: stupid, without much intelligence (torpes, inútiles)
half the time: 50% of the time, most of the time (el 50% de las veces)
gotten: obtained (conseguido)
to get / got / gotten
or to get / got / got (both ways are correct)

 

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