How to decide the grammatical gender of a newly-born word in German?
For example, I decided to use "der Mac Air", searching it and "das Mac Air" by Google will both give some results.

Is there any way to decide the grammatical gender of a newly-born word? Or can people choose one freely?

Question

How to decide the grammatical gender of a newly-born word in German?
For example, I decided to use "der Mac Air", searching it and "das Mac Air" by Google will both give some results.

Is there any way to decide the grammatical gender of a newly-born word? Or can people choose one freely?

Answer

http://www.duden.de/deutsche_sprache/sprachberatung/newsletter/archiv.php?id=111   (Genus von Fremdwörtern)

It depends on the nature of the new word. 
Es kommt auf das Wesen (/die Eigenschaften) des neuen Wortes an.

What does it mean? What's the gender of the translation in German?
Was bedeutet es? Wie ist das Geschlecht der deuschen Übersetzung.
E-Mail - die (elektronische) Post: die E-Mail
Mac Book Air - das Buch: das Mac Air
der Computer: der Mac Air
der/das Laptop

Which gender would it be in another language? 
Welches Geschlecht wäre es in einer anderen Sprache?

Are there any similarities with other words using the same flexion (or ending/suffix) in grammar?
Gibt es Ähnlichkeiten mit anderen Wörtern, die die gleiche Flexion (oder Endung) in der Grammatik benutzen?

Answers · 1

Still haven’t found your answers?

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn a language from the comfort of your own home. Browse our selection of experienced language tutors and enroll in your first lesson now!