welche deutsche artikel before foreign names?

sil · Gast

hi!

i'm an italian girl, i need to know which article (der die or das) you german people put before foreign names.

for instance, would you say:
der city, das city or die city? (i don't want to translate city into staedt, i want city to remain in english)

thanks for help! ^_^

Waleb · Anmeldungsdatum: 17.07.2005 Beiträge: 3

It's die City, but das London or das Berlin and die Stadt.

Gast

thank you! so kind and precise!
but, generally, i mean, do you have a predefinite article for foreign names? (pasta pizza, computer, etc)

danke shoen !

MacHarms · Anmeldungsdatum: 01.11.2004 Beiträge: 295 Wohnort: Hamburg

Hi, Italian Girl,
I think, your original question was not precise enough; what you - obviously - want to know is a rule we Germans apply if we want to give a German article (der, die, das) to a word we call "Lehnwort" (loan-word, a word borrowed from another language).
For instance "City": We say "die City" as the German word is "die Stadt"; but the German meaning of "City" is different from the English "city"; whereas in English "city" is just a big town, the German "City" is a city centre (or "downtown" if you like).
Words borrowed from Latin languages normally get their German article from their ending: "die Pasta" or "die Pizza" (femininum); "der Gigolo" (masculinum). An exception is "das Virus", as - in my opinion - we should say "der Virus".
Yes, and we say "das Femininum" (neutrum) - or "das Forum Romanum".
As to names: we say "die Moskwa" (probably as this name ends with "a"); but don´t ask me why we say "die Themse"!
Did I say German is an "easy language"?
Peter

Kai Neahnung · Gast

"der Virus" — computer virus
"das Virus" — biological virus

der Diskus
die Disk (why???!!!!!!!)

The German Language is verdammt schwer.

http://www.englischboard.de/topic,14,-geschlechtsbestimmung.html

MacHarms · Anmeldungsdatum: 01.11.2004 Beiträge: 295 Wohnort: Hamburg

Also, in meinem DUDEN steht:

Virus, das, außerhalb der Fachspr. auch der ...

wobei mit "Fachsprache" wohl Medizin gemeint ist.

Peter