this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
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Building Solidarity - One Word at a Time

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Bit idea - a liberal learning German and getting offended at not only "die Ukraine" but also "die Schweiz" (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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(brief pause while I google this)

Mein Gott, I almost found one.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I read the link you provided, which was basically most people explaining that German has other grammatical rules than English which is why the article "the" in English has a different connotation than the article "die" in German and why it can't just be dropped (all feminine and masculine countries have an article, neuter countries don't).

I must admit that I'm a native german speaker, so the joke probably flies right above my head ;)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The joke is that English learners of German might not understand the difference between the two languages and think “die Ukraine” is an insult the same way they think “the Ukraine” is an insult.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Kind of you to not give up on me haha! Thanks for explaining