I had a friend who did this in italian and she said it was very welcomed by the people. And a I saw a few wirtings/posts with german text that didn't add up so well because the articles/genders weren't all correct.
So I thought I just try and help a bit. Please be aware, even though my mother language is german and I am from Austria, the german language is a confusing thing with tons of rules that change the whole game. So if you are german and see something is wrong: Let me know and we change that. Lets work together.
I think the most important thing is the gendering for words. Here it doesn't depend if it is alive or if it has male bodyparts or not. Tbh, I have no idea how people came up with what gender things have, but here we are.
Der (male)
"der" is used for male gendered persons and things. Like "der Mann" the man. Or "der Tisch" the table. "der Junge" the boy. "der Bademantel" the bathrobe.
Die (female)
"die" is used for female gendered people and things.
"die Frau" the woman. "die Karte" the map (or all kind of cards. Playing cards, birthday cards, etc). "die Sonne" the sun.
Now you might think that its used for the term "Mädchen" girl as well. But no.
Das (neutral?)
"das" gets mostly used for gender neutral things OR things that aren't alive.
"das Baby" the baby. "das Mädchen" the girl (don't know why it gets the neutral term if its clearly used for female people. "das Haarband" the hairband.
I want to add here, that just because its gender neutral, it doesn't mean that it gets used for gender neutral people. Mostly its disliked to be called a "das" because it reduces you to an object. And people are obviously not happy about it. Thats what I learned from my friends who are in the neutral gender-zone. (shout out to them ♥)
The german language has no "them", a friend once told my about "xier" "Xie" but I honestly don't have much knowledge about it.
So lets take a look at the gendered things.
When we take the english word "this", one way to translate it is "diese"
BUT!
"diese" is the female version.
"dieser" is the male version.
"dieses" is the neutral one.
But yet again, we could also say "this person" which would be "diese Person" so... it gets the female treatmant because the word "Person" is gendered female. "die Person".
"diese Lampe" (gender is female. "Die Lampe") - this lamp
"dieser Tisch" (gender is male. "Der Tisch") - this table.
"dieses Tier" (no gender because "Tier" is genderless) - this animal
If you translate something into german, its important to check for the gender of the context. So to be sure, don't just translate one word, translate the whole sentence. Translators aren't always fully correct, but it hopefully makes it closer to what you want to say.
Okay, now we know there are genders. Now we come to things that might help you when writing romantic relationships.
We all know the term "My love" when someone talks to someone they love, as a nickname.
Sadly, it won't work that well in german.
"My love." translates to "meine Liebe." because Liebe - (Love) is already female in the german language.
"Meine Liebe" female.
"Mein Lieber" male.
"Thank you, my love"
"Danke, meine liebe." female
"Danke, mein lieber." male
But in my opinion its not a romantic way to express yourself. It can range from a close friend to a stranger.
Something that is more fitting is:
"My beloved"
"Meine geliebte" (female)
"Mein geliebter" (male)
Freundin and Freund are also the gendered term for friends. In a neutral way. If I tell you "this is my friend July." I would also say "Das ist meine freundin July." because July is female.
Or if I say "This is my friend James." I would say "Das ist mein freund James." Because James is male.
Thats all I can think of right now. Please ask away if you have a question, hopefully I can answer it. Because like I said, german is a language with many many *many* rules. Things can change so easly because of the time its used, genders that are different because of the context.
So main rules are:
Watch out for the gender of your character and the word you want to use.
Many german words have more meanings, so make sure it adds up with your context.
Past tense and all this makes a huge difference in things.
I'm sorry its such a wall of text, I still hope it somehow helps someone.
Please don't throw me off a cliff.
Stay hydrated and be nice to yourself and others (‾◡◝) Bye
Sometimes, it can be accidentally funny to be a German on an English-speaking website.
For example, a blog with an url that involved ‘pups’ followed me. A puppy picture blog, absolutely harmless. My (at that time tired, just woken up and entirely German-wired) brain went ahead and read ‘pups’ in the German meaning.
