Computer Gender IIA language instructor was explaining to her class that in French, nouns unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine. "House," in French, is feminine-"la mansion." "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 men's group decided that computers should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer"), because:
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("le computer"), because:
The women won.
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