'Parents' in SPANISH... Los Padres?

Question

Is it only los padres? Why padres and not los madres? Or rather why don't they have a neutral name like word 'parents' is in english language?

Is there anything behind this decision? Or does it work in the same way as the name 'man'.. meaning that 'man' means both human and a man with male gender? Coming from the times when men had more political power than women.. Are these the resons behind naming parents 'los padres' and NOT with any other name?

Answer 1

In spanish, there are 2 genders
feminine and masculine. It is the same thing in french.
the masculin gender is...how can i say that? the masculine gender is more used than the feminine gender. If you have a sentence that has the masculine and the feminine gender at the same time, they separate them( los chicos y las chicas) or fuse them. When the genders are fused, the masculine is use. Chicos+chicas=chicos. Los chicos son ruidosos. It might be boys only, or girls and boys. Do not ask me, why. I do not know.

Answer 2

There are 2 genders male and female. you have to know which and it takes time to learn. madres are feminine therefore la madre or las madres. Padre = masculine el padre or los padres. Collectively they become masculine but it is not the case always but perhaps in majority.

Answer 3

Yeah, Los Padres means The Parents :)

English too, seems to have a preference for him against her. Think about descriptions of somebody you read about or something. You don't know their gender. What do YOU normally call them? I, often without thinking, refer to them as "he". Other drivers tend to be "he"s too.

The bible too, calls Humanity "Man" and refers to "He".

It's everywhere! but probably far too ingrained now to change.

Tut.

Answer 4

As Spanish has everything masuline or feminine, they have to have a general rule, which is that the male plural covers both male and female. (hermanos, sobrinos, hijos can all be used to cover mixed gender). In English we don't have so many words that have masculine and feminine versions, and so never developed a general rule like that for plurals.

Answer 5

They try to use the masculine words whenever possible.

Spanish was created a long time ago, when all of mankind thought that men (masculine) was dominant and women (feminine) couldn´t have any rights or do anything basically.

Answer 6

Well, you can also say "Los progenitores" :p (do you like that word?) the mother is "la progenitora" and the father is "el progenitor", Does in english exist the word paternity? if so in Spanish it would be "la paternidad"

Answer 7

Si. Creo que si.