This Guardian article reports that the German justice ministry has determined that Germany's state institutions must make their language gender-neutral. That's right--no more der, die, das.

Wer, wie, was?!

So perhaps everything will become 'das,' so "das Baum," "das Auto," and "das Flasche." Or maybe it will all become 'die,' so 'die Baum,' 'die Auto,' and 'die Flasche.'

Woah!

Certainly the cases would become easier, and so would learning vocabulary, but wouldn't that take some of the fun out of it? Nothing is more exciting to an advanced intermediate student who guesses at an article and guesses correctly. It's a great feeling of accomplishment.

So here are my two questions for you, please comment below:

1. Do you think this is a good idea?

2. Do you think all languages should drop the gender of nouns?