there’s a discourse in english about Ukraine being prefaced with ‘the’ or not, with ‘the’ being seen to undermine Ukraine in some way. it’s all very silly, the joke is that german has articles on many country names, and someone immersed in that discourse would become fussed over it.
I read the link you provided, which was basically most people explaining that German has other grammatical rules than English which is why the article “the” in English has a different connotation than the article “die” in German and why it can’t just be dropped (all feminine and masculine countries have an article, neuter countries don’t).
I must admit that I’m a native german speaker, so the joke probably flies right above my head ;)
The joke is that English learners of German might not understand the difference between the two languages and think “die Ukraine” is an insult the same way they think “the Ukraine” is an insult.
there’s a discourse in english about Ukraine being prefaced with ‘the’ or not, with ‘the’ being seen to undermine Ukraine in some way. it’s all very silly, the joke is that german has articles on many country names, and someone immersed in that discourse would become fussed over it.
I read the link you provided, which was basically most people explaining that German has other grammatical rules than English which is why the article “the” in English has a different connotation than the article “die” in German and why it can’t just be dropped (all feminine and masculine countries have an article, neuter countries don’t).
I must admit that I’m a native german speaker, so the joke probably flies right above my head ;)
The joke is that English learners of German might not understand the difference between the two languages and think “die Ukraine” is an insult the same way they think “the Ukraine” is an insult.
Kind of you to not give up on me haha! Thanks for explaining