¿Language = LA idioma? - Administrator Attention Requested

Question

I have asked some silly question before, and this may be one of them, but, here goes nothing...

The question in the thread title is directly from the SpanishDict Dictionary for language

Shouldn't it be EL idoma?

Hope you don't mind, I changed the title, in hopes that it will be seen by someone who can fix it. :) - Valerie, Nov 10, 2009

Good idea. I was wondering what to do. Thanks Valerie! :-) - chaparrito, Nov 10, 2009

That was a great catch Chaparrito - Izanoni1, Nov 10, 2009

Answer 1

Just for those people who wonder why "idioma" is masculine:

Nouns of Greek origin that end in -ma, -pa, and -ta are masculine.

EXAMPLES:

* el programa/ program
* el mapa/ map
* el poeta/ poet
* el planeta/ planet
* el idioma/ language
* el sistema/ system
* el telegrama/ telegram
* el problema/ problem
* el clima/ climate
* el drama/ drama
* el cometa/ comet
* el diploma/ diploma
* el tema/ theme

But why is it "la" on the example above? Just a mistake? - Thomas-de-Noruega, Nov 10, 2009

Chapparito is telling us that there is a mistake in the dictionary here at SpanishDict. - --Mariana--, Nov 10, 2009

I love this answer Marianne...You're awesome. - Izanoni1, Nov 10, 2009

marianne... thanks so much! you are wonderful! - zenejero, Nov 10, 2009

Marianne, you have once again gone above and beyond, much thanks. =) - DJ_Huero, Nov 16, 2009

Answer 2

When it comes to the gender of nouns, it is pointless to hope/look for logic (especially the logic of some other language). As mentioned, in Spanish we have "el rostro" and "la cara". In French we have "le visage" and "la face". They all mean pretty much the same thing. Native speakers of Romance languages (which have grammatical gender) learn the gender along with learning the word .(they do not learn "rostro" [oh, and, by the way it is a masculine noun]).. They learn "el día próximo" or "el agua fría" or countless other expressions incorporating the noun.

You cannot understand grammatical gender; you, simply, have to accept it as a fact of life. You can, if you wish, try to devise/accept general "rules" to help your learning but do not think that such rules actually reflect "reality" (they are, at best, approximations).

Thanks samdie! I appreciate your thoroughness! :-) - chaparrito, Nov 11, 2009

Answer 3

You're right: it should be el idoma.

Is cara (face) m. or f.? Or, does it depend on whose face it applies to? El cara de Juan: La cara de Melba. - 005457e3, Nov 10, 2009

I'd make that a Question-Question, but, you know, um, there's that rule... But the dictionary isn't clear about its usage as is often the case. (Long live ambiguity!) - 005457e3, Nov 10, 2009

It's always "la cara" no matter who you're talking about. :-) - --Mariana--, Nov 10, 2009

Go get 'im, Marianne! ;-) - chaparrito, Nov 11, 2009

Answer 4

Lengua is a synonym to Idioma in Spanish. And Lengua is femenine, maybe that was the origin of the mistake.

La lengua materna de mi esposa es el italiano

The mother language of my wife is Italian.

Answer 5

The strange thing is, it is marked as a masculine noun underneath (m). They were obviously looking at lengua when they inserted "la". See how I defend the administration who are always acting in a reasonable manner..

Eddy your ability to find the perfect emoticon for every occasion never ceases to amaze me - Izanoni1, Nov 10, 2009

It takes longer than to type the reply but I do like it to be relevant, hehe, thanks for the compliment. - Eddy, Nov 11, 2009

Answer 6

It's el idioma, but la lengua. It's el rostro, but la cara.

There are, that I know of (and I could be very easily wrong) two that have a gender, but still the RAE (Real Academia Española de la Lengua) describes as both correct when the article preceding them is fem or masc, and those are:

• sartén (f, a frying pan) and it is correct to say "el sartén" or "la sartén". most times you will hear la sartén though.
• calor (m, heat) and it is correct to say "la calor" or "el calor". most times you will hear el calor.

I know a few Spanish teachers who agree to this construction and explanations, and I just rechecked with them. But they could also be wrong.

Interesting... I didn't know that about 'sartén' and 'calor'. Hmmm, research needed... ;-) - chaparrito, Nov 10, 2009

Sartén is either "la" or "el", both are right, but please, please, never use "la calor" nor "la azucar", those are used only by the non educated people. "El calor" and "el azucar" are the proper way. - Mokay, Nov 10, 2009

I strongly dislike 'la calor' too, but technically it is correct. La azúcar is simply wrong... as two a's together are... wrong. - zenejero, Nov 11, 2009

Thanks Mokay & zenejero for clearing that up! :-) - chaparrito, Nov 16, 2009

There's also el/la mar and a bunch of words whose meanings change according to the gender e.g. "corte" - samdie, Nov 16, 2009

Answer 7

Okay! Well, I'm glad it wasn't a silly question after all. What made me even ask, rather than simply assume it was incorrect, was the fact that even the audio version (clicking on the speaker icon next to the word) says "La Idioma."

Hearing that deep baritone radio-announcer style voice roll the words off of his tongue so smoothly made me think,

"Well, he sounds like he knows what he's talking about! Maybe it is la idoma. So... maybe I should just .

"He" is a synthesized voice reading whatever is written (right or wrong). - samdie, Nov 10, 2009

Serious? I mean, It's really a digitized voice? Wow. Nice job, Chris! - chaparrito, Nov 10, 2009

Answer 8

According to my big, fat dictionary it should. And in your link there the word is also marked as (m) for masculine, but still it says "la idioma" on top.

Maybe this question wasn`t so stupid after all?

it isn't stupid! - zenejero, Nov 10, 2009

Answer 9

thanks! all fixed!

Gracias, Paralee. :-) - chaparrito, Nov 16, 2009

Answer 10

Not stupid at all, I agree Thomas, this is a mistake, thank you Chappari, I am changing your name to Chapparri...sounds more handsome

chaparri? oh man, there we go with pet names.... - zenejero, Nov 10, 2009