businesswoman - feminine forms of nouns
Hey,
Цhat word is most commonly used of the following:
бизнесменка, коммерсантка, женщина-бизнесмен, деловая женшина
Aslo, is it offensive for women if you refer to them using the masculine form? And why is it that I often hear women referred to using the masculine form even though a feminine form exists - eg they called a girl an артист instead of an артистка.
большое спасибо
Re: businesswoman - feminine forms of nouns
Quote:
Originally Posted by basurero
Hey,
Цhat word is most commonly used of the following:
бизнесменка, коммерсантка, женщина-бизнесмен, деловая женшина
Aslo, is it offensive for women if you refer to them using the masculine form? And why is it that I often hear women referred to using the masculine form even though a feminine form exists - eg they called a girl an артист instead of an артистка.
большое спасибо
Well, in Deutsch they just add "-in" to form a feminine profession name. In Russian it's not that easy. For traditional profession names there usually exist both masculine and feminine variant (but not always, for an instance "врач").
For traditionally masculine professions, the masculine variant is considered "primary", so when there is no intent to emphasize the sex of the person, the masculine variant is often used regardless of the real sex.
Кто ваша жена по профессии? Она артист.
Кто эта девушка по профессии? Она художник.
Кто она по профессии? Она спортсмен.
But using the feminine variant in this case is also correct.
However for traditionally feminine professions, feminine variant (which is primary in this case) is virtually never used when the person is a man. Feminine variant can be used only if there is no known masculine variant.
Кто он по профессии? Он медбрат (not медсестра).
Кто этот человек по профессии? Он дояр (not доярка).
Кем работает Ходорковский? Он работает швеей-мотористкой (no masculine variant).
For many profession names (mostly new ones which come from English) there is no feminine variant at all. Бизнесмен is one instance.
Моя жена - бизнесмен.
(this word doesn't break into "business" and "man" in Russian, so "man" here is irrelevant).
Деловая женщина is more a lifestyle description than a profession.