It seems the most impending issue for COVID-19 stricken France is to decide which grammatical gender they should provide for the word COVID-19.
The French is famous for having genders and for their articles, equivalent of the English ‘a’ ‘the’, they have separate words for each grammatical differences. And now it has been cleared once and for all: Covid-19, the Académie Française decided, is assuredly feminine, despite its increasingly common usage with the masculine article. The organization was set up to protect the French language from English dominance and other foreign and internal threats to the linguistic preservation of their language, a very singular institution
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An example of the group’s work: Though many French people commonly use the phrase “le weekend” to refer to, well, the weekend, the Academie encourages the public to use “le fin de semaine,” literally meaning “the end of the week,” in an effort to keep English out of the language.point 380 |
The 40 members of the Academie have clearly spoken on this issue: It’s not “le Covid-19,” they say.point 100 | It’s “la Covid-19” — using a feminine article.point 163 | 1
Their logic is as thus: “When it comes to acronyms or abbreviations, the gender of the word is determined by whatever word constitutes the core of the abbreviation.point 422 |
The example they used is the CIA — which takes the feminine article, la CIA.point 68 | The reason? In French, CIA stands for “Agence centrale de renseignement.point 136 | ” Because “agence” (agency, in English) has a feminine gender, the acronym of CIA is also feminine, hence “la CIA.point 255 |
” Keeping with this theme of governmental agencies, another example is the FBI.point 73 | In French, it’s “Bureau fédéral d’enquête” — and “bureau” is masculine.point 179 | So, you’re supposed to say “le FBI” because “le” is masculine.point 261 |
Here’s where Covid-19 comes in.point 33 | ”point 40 | 1
“Covid stands for coronavirus disease.point 191 | In French, according to the Academy, that translates into “maladie provoquée par le corona virus” — which in English means, “the disease caused by the coronavirus.point 354 |
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“Maladie” is a feminine word so it uses the feminine article ‘la’: hence “la maladie.point 108 | ” Therefore, it should be “la Covid-19,””, according to the Academie”point 197 | 1
So it seems very simple, following their train of thought, but the French public is famous for not adhering to the governmental rules on how they should speak.
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Replaced!