In French the masculine and neutral gender collapsed. That’s why masculine is a default. All neutral pronouns merged with the masculine due to sound shifts.
In French the masculine and neutral gender collapsed. That’s why masculine is a default. All neutral pronouns merged with the masculine due to sound shifts.
That’s a north American problem though. German settled on nouns that are more like “the ones who X”. Like, Studierende instead of Studenten and Studentinnen. (The last two are just “students” in their gender specific form. The first one literally translated means “the ones who study”)