(To everyone who finds my posts concerning buxom peasant girls inappropriate for a married man - this is one post I really hope Mrs. HTD doesn't read!)


Actually ... The default is der (as in Swiss German der Butter, German German die Butter)

Rule number one for foreigners: if you don't know, use der.

In my more naive days I used to say "der die das xxxx" - but as Louis pointed out, non-Teutonic humour doesn't always go down well with Teutons.

Rule number two for foreigners: don't make jokes about the German language to Germans.

As we all know Germans are rule orientated. If there isn't a rule then they make one, if they feel there might be an exception to a rule at a later date, then they make a rule as to how to proceed in the case of an as yet unknown exception. There is a rule!

Failing that there is a little balding man in the Duden offices in Mannheim who will decide - unfortunately a coin has only two sides so .... now where was that rulebook?