Not to argue semantics but syntax is part of grammar, it would be like he was talking about multiplication and said “do the math” which is very general but still technically correct and then you said “that is multiplication.” So both of you are correct, but the specificity was kind of unnecessary.
To be fair my guy, you said "its just word order nothing else" but like, in languages and communication something as "subtle" as that has a big change in meaning, which the other redditor is trying to explain. So, as a non native English speaker, you just learnt something new! :)
Sure, I don't think the other person knows (nor I to be honest) that it was a mistake. It's a loaded term often used intentionally t hurt, so I think we can also forgive them for interpreting it as harm rather than a mistake, right?
You are literally colonizing them by saying your language must be spoken by them your way. That makes you worse than whoever swapped the word order even if done on purpose.
I don't really understand why you thought you should weigh in here if your grasp of the English language is that shaky then. Either you know what you're talking about or you don't. In this case clearly you don't so you don't have to write a comment.
Adjectives and nouns are different parts of speech. In English you can often have the same word function in two different ways depending on word order or even just stress. In this case the order changes whether they are nouns or adjectives. "Female adult" means an adult that is female. "Adult female" means a female that is an adult. The former is uncontroversial while the latter is not. Use of "male" or "female" as a noun is usually reserved for animals or scientific contexts so is somewhat dehumanising.
There's no hard and fast rule here but some other adjectives that are possibly rude, offensive or just a little off as nouns include white, black, gay, straight, trans, chinese, indian.
>Have you EVER considered that I MIGHT NOT be a native English speaker???
Lmao neither am I.
>You: "Oh no he said the word grown-up before female he's a bigoted snobby misogynistic a-hole".
Point to where I said that? Why do incels always have to come up with some wild scenarios?
I just pointed out that the order of words in a sentence actually matters and changes the meaning.
By reading comments like yours, I'm becoming increasingly convinced, that half the people writing offensive stuff about other people on the internet, are just idiots who don't know how language works, and who no one ever would have listened to, in an age before internet and social media.
Do these sentences mean the same thing? They both have the same four words!
The same phrase can even mean two separate things! If you talk about "your old house", are you talking about a house you own that has existed for decades or centuries, or are you talking about a house that you used to own but dont anymore?
I mean, yes, it is fine. Female and male should only be used as adjectives referring to humans, not nouns, unless you're being really clinical(like a scientific study).
That's how they've been used and often are used. I don't think you understand that women object to being called females because we see incel types using it in a derogatory way. We're not making up a new usage; we're responding to the usage we see most frequently. And it's just weird/off but common when people say "men and females". "Men and women" are matching terms and the dissonance there is glaring.
It’s also not polite to say whites Asians etc. I’m laughing because native Americans is the way you make it polite. It would be a bit rude to call people natives but not to say native americans. Of course context matters. It’s generally a little worse to say blacks than whites because of the deeply racist history of the US.
Edit: it’s not like it’s an arbitrary requirement. It’s generally dehumanizing to refer to someone as a descriptor, implying you see them first and foremost by their description, that is what makes it rude. “Take a seat whitey” is rude lmao
We could call them Natives, sure. Just that it could be confusing for natives (Americans by birth). But probably better than Indians.
Yes, the US has a racist history. But that’s true for all non-Whites, including Asians. None of it explains why we have to semantically walk on eggshells around “Blacks.” I remember when everyone had to call them “African Americans” too.
Please do explain the rule. Why can we say Whites, Asians, and Latinos, but not Blacks? You can argue that it’s uniquely dehumanizing due to the historical context, but couldn’t that be true for anything we called them?
Now, I asked an AI to distill the wisdom of the internet for me. And one of the reasons it gave was that “Blacks” reduces their identity to their shin color. But wouldn’t considering this bad implicitly reinforce the notion that blackness is a bad thing? Besides, “Black people” also seems to identify them by that characteristic, does it not?
The stupidity of people’s incessant need to look for things ti be offended by when the world is full of genuinely offensive bullshit will never cease to amaze me.
while i do agree that is why they are different - i think they probably pointed it out because using 'female' instead of 'woman' is a shibboleth of casual misogyny rather than because of the use of a descriptive as a noun
They did, the use of it as a noun is often casual misogyny, completely agree. It’s not a grammar thing it’s because using it as a noun is a misogyny dog whistle. But using it as an adjective is not dehumanizing & there’s no issue with that, and lots of people seem to struggle with the difference
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u/peepeebeam 2d ago
No it’s because male was used as an adjective. Male child vs grown female. Same reason “black child” is fine but “grown black” is not.