Heard on the Olympics broadcast

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

The German diminutive suffix -chen (e.g., in Mädchen = girl) is the determining factor here. The nouns in which -chen appears must all be neuter, regardless of their gender in real life.
 
But the Germans are not unreasonable people, and when talking about a girl they will usually refer to her as "sie" (she), not "es" ("it"; neuter).  
 
Gerald Cohen

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Ron Butters 8/10/2008 3:17 PM, wrote:

<snip> But every high school student who has ever studied German knows that a girl is neuter in that
language. 

<snip>

 

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