French Word of the Day: Adelphie
When “brothers” and “sisters” don’t quite cut it in linguistic terms
Why do I need to know adelphie?
Because it’s a one-word French noun for brothers and sisters.
What does it mean?
There’s a French word for a group of brothers (fratrie), and a French word for a group of sisters (sororie). And there’s a word for a group made up of brothers AND sisters.
Adelphie - pronounced A-delf-ee - describes a mixed group of children from the same family.
Now, French, notoriously, prioritises masculine over feminine, so when a group of females are joined by a single male, the now-larger group is classed as masculine, even though there are still more females in it. This is because the French - mostly - don't see masculine or feminine in grammar terms as having anything to do with men, women, sex or gender, although in matters of job titles, this is starting to change.
But, for gender agreement matters in a sentence, adelphie is - really rather pleasingly - feminine. Go figure.
Use it like this
Elle est issue d’une adelphie de sept frères et sœurs - She comes from a family of seven brothers and sisters.
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Why do I need to know adelphie?
Because it’s a one-word French noun for brothers and sisters.
What does it mean?
There’s a French word for a group of brothers (fratrie), and a French word for a group of sisters (sororie). And there’s a word for a group made up of brothers AND sisters.
Adelphie - pronounced A-delf-ee - describes a mixed group of children from the same family.
Now, French, notoriously, prioritises masculine over feminine, so when a group of females are joined by a single male, the now-larger group is classed as masculine, even though there are still more females in it. This is because the French - mostly - don't see masculine or feminine in grammar terms as having anything to do with men, women, sex or gender, although in matters of job titles, this is starting to change.
But, for gender agreement matters in a sentence, adelphie is - really rather pleasingly - feminine. Go figure.
Use it like this
Elle est issue d’une adelphie de sept frères et sœurs - She comes from a family of seven brothers and sisters.
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