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That's news to me that French for "valley" is masculine and "val" - isn't it feminine "vallée"? Like, say "Vallée Blanche" near Chamonix? And I suppose the Engl

That's news to me that French for "valley" is masculine and "val" - isn't it feminine "vallée"? Like, say "Vallée Blanche" near Chamonix? And I suppose the English ripoff, "valley" sounds more like "vallée" than "val" (backwards argument, I know).

mytailorisrich 2y ago
Yes, la vallée (feminine) and le val (masculine). Valley is usually la vallée. Val is mostly only used in the names of places. Apparently val gave vale in English.
- makapuf 2y ago
  Genders in French words is a fine example of a cryptography-grade random generator.
  - Muromec 2y ago
    It's a keyed generator, they just lost that small bag that seeded it
  - GuB-42 2y ago
    It can funny sometimes. A breast (un sein) and a vagina (un vagin) are both masculine, while a beard (une barbe) is feminine. For the slang terms, a ball (une couille) and a dick (une bite) are also feminine. Of course, it is not always the opposite, otherwise it wouldn't be random. A penis (un penis) is masculine for instance.
idoubtit 2y ago
The "Vallée blanche" you mentioned is not very far from "Val d'Arly" or "Val Thorens" in the Alps. Both words "val" and "vallée", and also "vallon", come from the Latin "vallis". See the Littré dictionary https://www.littre.org/definition/val https://www.littre.org/definition/val for examples over the last millennium. By the way "Le dormeur du val" (The sleeper of the small valley) is one of Rimbaud's most famous poems, often learned at school.
bambax 2y ago
Un val is a small vallée. Une vallée is typically several kilometers wide; un val is a couple of hundred meters wide, tops. The "Trésor de la langue française informatisé" (which hasn't been updated since 1994) says val is deprecated, but it's common in classic literary novels, together with un vallon, a near synonym.
dustypotato 2y ago
Le terme vallée, utilisé comme toponyme, doit être distingué du terme val qui est souvent employé pour désigner et nommer une région limitée dans divers pays d'Europe et dans leurs langues. -- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vall%C3%A9e https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vall%C3%A9e I agree. it's weird. I'm sure there are other similar examples

mytailorisrich 2y ago

Yes, la vallée (feminine) and le val (masculine). Valley is usually la vallée. Val is mostly only used in the names of places. Apparently val gave vale in English.

makapuf 2y ago
Genders in French words is a fine example of a cryptography-grade random generator.
- Muromec 2y ago
  It's a keyed generator, they just lost that small bag that seeded it
- GuB-42 2y ago
  It can funny sometimes. A breast (un sein) and a vagina (un vagin) are both masculine, while a beard (une barbe) is feminine. For the slang terms, a ball (une couille) and a dick (une bite) are also feminine. Of course, it is not always the opposite, otherwise it wouldn't be random. A penis (un penis) is masculine for instance.

idoubtit 2y ago

The "Vallée blanche" you mentioned is not very far from "Val d'Arly" or "Val Thorens" in the Alps. Both words "val" and "vallée", and also "vallon", come from the Latin "vallis". See the Littré dictionary https://www.littre.org/definition/val https://www.littre.org/definition/val for examples over the last millennium. By the way "Le dormeur du val" (The sleeper of the small valley) is one of Rimbaud's most famous poems, often learned at school.

bambax 2y ago

Un val is a small vallée. Une vallée is typically several kilometers wide; un val is a couple of hundred meters wide, tops. The "Trésor de la langue française informatisé" (which hasn't been updated since 1994) says val is deprecated, but it's common in classic literary novels, together with un vallon, a near synonym.

dustypotato 2y ago

Le terme vallée, utilisé comme toponyme, doit être distingué du terme val qui est souvent employé pour désigner et nommer une région limitée dans divers pays d'Europe et dans leurs langues. -- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vall%C3%A9e https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vall%C3%A9e I agree. it's weird. I'm sure there are other similar examples