Not sure if this has been done before or not, but what the hell...
Reading through PoloGirl's thread earlier, there was a little bit of banter over Polo's gender (the car, not the girl).
To her, Polo is most definitely male.
Now my 10 year old unmodified Escort i have always addressed as female. Not sure why, really. Perhaps it's a bit of personification (or doggyfication):
Imagine Terry Wogan sitting by a fireplace in slippers calling his faithful old labrador (if he had one) "Good Old Girl".
As you can see, its not easy to explain why you may have attached a gender to your vehicle. What makes a car 'male'?
Is it a car with aggressive looks, big alloys, high power?
ie. Subaru Imprezza = Male?
Nissan Micra = Female?
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I've always thought that men refer to their cars as 'she', and women refer to them as 'he'.
For example, if a blokes car fails to start, now many times have you heard/said the phrase "come on girl, damn well start will you"
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My cars are always girls. However, I would imagine that if I had an Impreza or something similar, it might become a guy, come on son!
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Grover the Rover is male.
Tabitha the TVR is clearly a girl.
Lesbian Lexus I'm not 100% sure about.
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Lola the Laguna is a brass (check your cockney slang)
All the looks and feel of a sex bomb, moves in exactly the right way, no morals scruples or reliability and ready to raid your wallet when not looking.
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>>(check your cockney slang)
rubber ?
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>>(check your cockney slang) rubber ?
Door
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Must admit as a girlie I always used to give my cars male names, although that all changed when I got my Mini because she is definately a little girlie. Sounds mad I know but I find cars just seem to "look" male or female.
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My Impreza is obviously, definitely male. I can't imagine how anyone could perceive an Impreza as 'she', and i am sure that 90% of Impreza owners would concur.
If i owned a MX-5, on the other hand, that would definitely be female.
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Asexual, like myself.
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I have to drive my new car from Coventry to Warsaw on Monday. I?m obviously hoping it?s a girl as I?ll be spending 18 hours inside her.
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Depends on which expletive is being used at the time, when I'm trying to get to that really inaccessible bolt Citroen have cunningly hidden: Male: Come on, you 'illegitmate child'. Female: You 'female dog' you. (toned down to avoid offending the filter...!). Wife's cars have all been Male: Hamish, Peter and now Bob. I ask you??
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Mrs O's MX5 is called Judith, after Judith Chalmers, mainly due to the ridiculous burnt yellow/orange colour. I think the XJS must be male as it is quite often bad-tempered, and drinks like a fish.
O
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Jaguar XJS V12 - comes with free personalised oil tanker.
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Mrs O's MX5 is called Judith, after Judith Chalmers, mainly due to the ridiculous burnt yellow/orange colour. I think the XJS must be male as it is quite often bad-tempered, and drinks like a fish. O -- Jaguar XJS V12 - comes with free personalised oil tanker.
Is the XJS Oliver Reed then?
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Mine is usually straight, but just sometimes it is bent... ;o
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From the time of my family's first car in 1947 - an Austin 8 - all our vehicles, mine since and other friends and family have always been referred to as "she" or, more likely, an appropriate lady's name.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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My Alfa is male. The L200 is female.
Work that one out.
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You use the L200 to do shopping?
Oh no - that would mean you use the Alfa to have some fun.
Yes yes - I'll go now.
--
Adam
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You, my son, are a little too quick off the mark.
Good response though.
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Yes Sir. Thank you Sir.
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Adam
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My Alfa is male. The L200 is female.
Now then, your lithe, svelt, good looking and sexy Alfa is Male,
and your Fat, Ugly, Top Heavy, Ponderous and lumbering L200 is female.
Hmmmmm
Work that one out.
Nope not going there.
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Hermaphrodite.
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All cars are female. Some are Angelina Jolie, some are Gwyneth Paltrow, some are Ruby Wax but all are female.
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I'm not worried about the sex of the car but it's pedigree. Some are definite dogs..
madf
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Different cars have different sexes - my Peugeot 205 is a definate male, company yaris is definately female and the rover 100 is also male.
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It's about character, and probably how the car makes you feel ;-)
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>> My Alfa is male. The L200 is female. Now then, your lithe, svelt, good looking and sexy Alfa is Male, and your Fat, Ugly, Top Heavy, Ponderous and lumbering L200 is female. Hmmmmm >> Work that one out. Nope not going there.
Didn't say I had the answer, just that somebody ought to work it out.
:op
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"My Alfa is male. The L200 is female."
Alpha male; the L200 is a pickup.
Correct?
Strange that no-one's mentioned the N-word! One of the few logical things about the English language is that men are masculine (well mostly), women are feminine (ditto) and things are neuter.
I'm fond of my car but giving it a gender wouldn't make a difference - maybe that just shows I'm a boring chartered accountant.
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"My Alfa is male. The L200 is female." Alpha male; the L200 is a pickup. Correct?
Darn you're good! Never in a million years did I expect anyone to get that.
Too much time with the cryptic crossword?
:oD
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Being pedantic, but I hate it when people use the word sex when they mean gender.
My Terrano is female but unfortunately she is gay.
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La voiture est une fille.
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Female - makes too much noise, costs a fortune to run, can't rely on it
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La voiture est une fille.
Interesting point - in Russian, a car (maschina) is feminine too. But in German it is Das Auto from memory, therefore neuter i.e. just an object.
My car is just an object too!
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Whoever invented German grammar was totally unreconstructed:
Das Kind - child of either sex
Das Madchen - girl (there's an umlaut there but that doesn't help!)
Das Fraulein - unmarried lady
Only when she gets married is she allowed to be feminine -
Die Frau.
Benjamin Kennedy who wrote the Latin grammar that we all used to use was more of a realist with his examples of verbs:
Amo - I love
Moneo - I warn - first quarrel
Rego - I rule - I put my foot down....
Audio - I hear - she wins again.
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Sorry - that got us off the topic of cars.
Motoring relevance (thinking quickly....) Ah yes - Audi (imperative of audio) is Latin for the German Horch, and Herr Horch was one of the founders of Auto Union in the 1930's, I think.
With such bits of useless information do we make sure we comply with the terms of the forum!
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Goodness - if SWMBO thought I was going out every day with a girl I would be in trouble!
Mind you - it's probably even worse going out with a guy every day.
Oh dear - now I'm confused!
Probably best to refer to IT!
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Cars in French are usually female.
La Laguna, for instance. However you would talk about "un monospace" (people carrier) so an Espace, built on the same platform as la Laguna is masculine.
A car might also be un coupé but une [voiture] sportive but a luxury car would be une berline or une grande routière - no confusion there.
In German der Wagen (masculine) and das Auto (neuter) are more or less interchangeable, although it's always der Siebener (BMW 7 Series), der Golf etc. and Sportwagen is 5 times as prevalent on Google as Sportauto.
However das Familienauto sounds more normal to me than Familienwagen and is slightly more prevalent for a family car. A people carrier would be ein Van but I (and apparently lots of native speakers) are unsure of its gender, but ein Siebensitzer (7 seater) is always masculine.
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My car doesn't have the necessary body parts to qualify it as being either sex.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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