Do men and women speak the same way?

[irmamar]

I'd like to know your opinion about the way both women and men speak in any conversation. If you want to add any idea about this, I'd like to know it, too. My aim is not a war of the sexes, of course, but to know your opinion. If you know another culture where common patterns may change, you can talk about it.

Thank you very much.

[Perikles]

A great idea. The poll does not differentiate between mixed-sex groups and single-sex groups, where differences are huge. In groups of women, everybody talks at the same time about different things, whereas in groups of men, they adopt the peculiar habit of keeping to one topic, listening to others and taking turns to talk .

This is not opinion, this is fact . I have discussed this with women now and again, and some of them claim that in the female conversations, they do in fact listen to several things at once, even though it sounds as if everybody is talking and nobody is listening. Do you believe this?

[irmamar]

It doesn't matter if the group is mixed or not. And after a few answers, I'll explain what studies about it say.

[poli]

En general los hombres y las mujeres en EEUU no hablan en el mismo modo. Nuevamente hay un accento nacional llamado valley de que un gran
porcentaje de mujeres jovenes hablan, y casi no hay ningún hombre que lo usa. Donde trabajo hay varias mujeres que usan habitualmente algunos frases cúrsis como oh my god! o o how cute! tres o cuatro veces la hora, y los hombres se los usan menos.

Los hombres tambien tienen sus fórmulas. Uno que me molesta es su uso del verbo impact. Entre algunos hombres el sustanivo impact no existe y eso me molesta.

En general los hombres y mujeres usan profanidad y obsenidad distintamente. Los hombres los usa más directo y con más rencor. Ejemplo de lo que puede decir un hombre : Goddam him! That f***ing lazy piece of s*** wrote a check for himself and left us owing money to f**** electric company!
Mujeres: O f***! This sh**** pen ran out of ink. Does anyone have another goddam pen I can borrow?

Los que escribo son observacionces nada más y es claro que la mayoría los hombres y las mujeres son capaces de hablar igual.
Espero que no haya ofendido a nadie con mis ejemplos.

[Dale]

I voted but there is no way I'm making a comment on this one..

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Interesting... none of the differences I see in women's and men's talk are listed in the poll.

I agree with Poli on the differences between accents and expressions (almost) specifically associated with women or men, and the fact that bad words are not exclusively used by any sex.

As for who speaks more and more attentively, I see it as a mere matter of education, not sex.

[CrOtALiTo]

I don't believe the gender being the exception at this case, because if you know speak English or Spanish the same person will speak well the language without does a race with other people, then you surely speak Spanish well and a women can speaks the Spanish also well like you.

I don't believe it being a impediment at this case.

[irmamar]

Angélica, which are the differences you see?

Crotalito, it doesn't matter the language spoken. In fact I'm more interested in other cultures than in mine.

[Dale]

@Angélica. Yes, please share your thoughts on what differences you see?

@irmamar - Isn't that often the way it is. Many of us are more interested in the cultures of others than in our own. I wonder why that is? The attraction of the unfamiliar?

My observations do show me that women use many more words than the man. I am not saying they talk a lot...only that they use more words... And they are generally more polite than the male.

[irmamar]

I guess that's because we already know our culture and el ansia de saber es inherente al ser humano (not sure: longing for knowledge is inherent to the human being ).

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by Dale

My observations do show me that women use many more words than the man. I am not saying they talk a lot...only that they use more words...

I agree. They never use a sentence when there is an opportunity to use a paragraph.

[Juana]

¡Hola!
I have read that men use more numbers such as statistics or sports scores when they speak.
He leído que hombres utilizan más números como cuentas de statistics o deporte cuando hablan.

Please correct my errors.
Corrija por favor mis errores. Gracias.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Juana

¡Hola!
I have read that men use more numbers such as statistics or sports scores when they speak.
He leído que los hombres utilizan más números tales como las estadísticas o los resultados deportivos cuando hablan.

Corrections / suggestions above.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Irma & Dale: As I said, I think the differences are found more in gestures, vocabulary, accents, etc., than in features of education.

For example: when asking for something, most men I know tend to use a more assertive tone of voice, while women try to use a more interrogative one.

When women mark their regional accent (or sociolect), they stress different parts of speech than men. (I'd have to find recorded examples, but I don't think I have the time to look for them.)

There are pet words that tend to be exclusively used by women or men:
In Mexico: A word almost never used by women, but which many men use indiscriminately is "brutal" (as a synonym of "extraordinario", in a positive or negative way)
- Es una película brutal.
- La fiesta estuvo brutal.
- El accidente estuvo brutal.
- Es un esfuerzo brutal

And there is no way one would hear a man saying: "¿Verdad que está lindooo? ¡Me lo comoooo!" (even if the object of the "fascination" is not edibe-- a child or a dog, for example).
A man would hardly say "plis" or "porfis" (colloquial, and rather childlike expressions for "por favor" --"please"), but women often use them: "¿Me ayudas, pliiis?"/"¿Me ayudas, porfis?"


As for the elements of the poll, I have too many examples and counterexamples for each one of them, enough to be convinced that they do not mark the differences between men and women, and also to be convinced that the popular clichés about gossiping or talkative women, or attentive men can't be maintained.

[Juana]

Entiendo los correccíones.
I understand the corrections.

los homres = the men
tales = such
las estadísticas = the statistics
los resultados deportivos = the sports results

¡Gracias!

When a woman speaks with the father-in-law of her son, is it more appropriate to shake hands or to give a hug?
¿Cuando una mujer habla con el suegro de su hijo, es más apropiado para darle la mano o dar un abrazo?

Corrija mis errores por favor. Gracias.

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by irmamar

Angélica, which are the differences you see?

Crotalito, it doesn't matter the language spoken. In fact I'm more interested in other cultures than in mine.

Yes I'm agree with you the language really doesn't matter for anyone and either the gender in the person, really here the unit it could be important is the form how you speak the language if you speak correctly form or you speak incorrectly form the language.

Don't you?

Greetings

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Juana

Entiendo las correcciones.
la corrección (la o lleva tilde en singular)
las correcciones (en plural, la penúltima es la sílaba tónica y no hay que echarle tilde)

When a woman speaks with the father-in-law of her son, is it more appropriate to shake hands or to give a hug?
¿Cuando una mujer habla con el suegro de su hijo, ¿es más apropiado para darle la mano o (darle) un abrazo?

Corrige mis errores por favor. Gracias.

You can use the 2nd-person singular here in the forums .
Corrija (3rd-person - too formal)
Corrige (2nd-person - perfect for here in the forums)

The opening question mark is placed in front of the question only.

The indirect object pronoun 'le' must accompany both verbs in the last phrase, if you choose to repeat the verb. I placed the verb in parentheses because it isn't necessary to say it twice.

[sosia]

more examples (Angélica's )
women
¡que fuerte! ¿de veras? ¡No me lo puedo creer!
men
¡fue un partidazo! ¡estuvo cañón!

Saludos

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by sosia

more examples (Angélica's )
women
¡que fuerte! ¿de veras? ¡No me lo puedo creer!
men
¡fue un partidazo! ¡estuvo cañón!

Saludos

That idiom is very used inside my country.

Estuvo cañon.
To likes you can say Estuvo canijo this is less impolite than the first ones, although any of the two slang are correct in Spanish.

[irmamar]

Great contribution, Angélica. From your words I can read an interesting cultural background.

However, I didn't want to be boring with more profound studies about the matter; just, as you said, I used that typical 'clichés' in order to have a superficial perception of the general opinion about the topic. In fact, nothing interesting, just for "fun".

But I liked very much your point of view.

Maybe Jessica is able to give her opinion about the Chinese society.