undefined | Better HN

0 points17186274404mo ago0 comments

> with "Geschwister"

I never heard that used as a singular noun. Maybe it is a Swiss thing. If anything you could say 'das Geschwisterkind'.

0 comments

Actually, the Duden article I linked above says (under "Bedeutungen"):

1. (männliche wie weibliche) Kinder gleicher Eltern, nur im Plural. Beispiele: "die Geschwister sehen sich alle ähnlich", "ich habe drei Geschwister (wir sind vier Geschwister)"

2. einzelner Geschwisterteil. Gebrauch: Fachsprache; auch schweizerisch Beispiel: "das ältere Geschwister"

So, you are correct, the singular form is only used by the Swiss and as a technical term. So maybe the game shouldn't contain it at all? Or accept both "das" and "die", in case someone thinks it has to be plural?

1718627440OP4mo ago

Yes, that's where I took the Swiss thing from, I haven't heard that word before. As for the technical term, to me that sounds like one of these artificially degendered forms that are en vogue to day. For anyone who doesn't knows it: 'Geschwister' comes from sister, it is kind of like sisterhood, the other term is 'Gebrüder', which is outdated now. (Yes sisterhood would be 'Schwesternschaft', I can't think of an English grammatical equivalent. Maybe something like 'sistered', the participle to sister describing the set of people you are sistered to.)

The feminist crowd just perceives a common male word as gendered and a common female word to be not.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse