As Someone Learning German, I Know This Pain

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How aggregious is misgendering items in other languages? I assume it's no big deal and may not even be worth correcting most of the time?
- It sounds very weird and you know immediately it's a foreigner speaking. When you are fluent the genders just come naturally, I don't think I've ever seen a native making a mistake like that, maybe children.
  I wouldn't correct anyone unless they want to learn though, the noun itself is more important and it carries the meaning across.
  This is for Brazilian Portuguese at least.
  
  I can vouch it's the same for Mexican Spanish.
- It's jarring but obviously completely acceptable from someone learning the language
  
  Yeah, it just sounds off and someone might correct you but it isn't a big deal.
- In spoken language? As other said, you notice and ypu know you don't talk to native speaker. You might correct them just ao they can learn and carry on.
  On exam, which is the contextnof the meme? Pretty aggregious.
- If you misgender something you either:
  Are a native speaker that messed up (but know the correct gender), so either you correct yourself or just continue, since everyone will understand that you messed up and will understand you perfectly.
  Are learning the language: if the other person is close to you, you'll be correct to help you learn the language. Else, the other person will notice that you're not a native speaker and will switch the gender in their head to not discourage you. Unless the other person is an asshole.
  There are very few situations where the hearer can't just correct the gender in their head, so it's not very serious. I'm talking about Spanish though, idk if in other languages is different.
- Every once in a while there are two words that are written the same but have different gender, if you use the wrong article it'll get confusing for a second and you'll have to figure out from context what was actually meant.
- French is just kind of compact (they even have the 'de' to un-ambigous things I figure) so sometimes the phrase rolls on but means something completely different, it might work out or not but can be confusing.
  My master mistake, at dinner with my SOs family;
  Tout le monde veut rentrer dans le moule.
  This is the correct version.
  Edit: BTW Swedish is the other way around and it's quite easy to understand even if you missgender.
  
  That's the most frustrating part about Danish/English. Does saying the wrong article break communication? no, most people won't notice unless you really linger on it or point it out (you probably wouldn't hear it half the time in Danish anyways). Does it look fucking stupid and wrong when you write it? yes 🙃
  
  Danish is a gigachad language because they use the incredibly satisfying /ð/ as in ved. I don't even know exactly what that thing is it's some kind of an abomination of a velarized laminal approximant and absolutely impossible for any non-native to pronounce.
  
  the soft d? It's not hard imo, as a non-native. I understand language is mostly muscle memory/training but really it's just learning how to use the ... back? of your throat and tongue to make the right sounds with danish. Most of it requires your tongue to be flat or throat open to some degree.
  This all sounds very sexual but I do truly mean it LOL
  
  That must've generated some thunderous laughter :D
- It would look or sound really stupid and be absolutely incorrect if you have done it in Polish. There is high chance you would be mocked for it.
- Informally, no native will ever correct you for misgendering a word - it sounds weird and stunted, but changes little in communicating the sorts of simple ideas I'd imagine a low-proficiency speaker would need to get through.
  In a more formal setting, 10/10 times someone will correct you.

233 comments