# Is it correct to say "Latino woman" in English? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2011, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-say-latino-woman-in-english/596149 "2011-09-13T11:52:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-say-latino-woman-in-english/596149/41 "2011-09-17T12:56:00Z")
In English, one must forget the foreign language, because it is English, and not a foreign language. I speak Spanish quite fluently, but I’m not jarred by “Latino woman” because I’m not reading or thinking Spanish when I read an English sentence. I think I would be jarred by “Latina woman” because in English “Latina” is a noun, not an adjective, and seeing “Latina woman” would be similar to encountering “board woman” or something. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-say-latino-woman-in-english/596149/42 "2011-09-17T15:23:30Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#): > > Latino woman is incorrect and hermaphroditic. > > Latina woman is correct and consistent. Not redundant, consistent. > > The argument that Latino refers to a group is correct, except that when used in the context of a single female or multiple females, you use the female version. If in that group there happens to be a single male, then you use the masculine version. > > Also by the way, Latina does not mean Latin woman necessarily. It can refer to an object that is conjugated as female. > > Obviously the concept is mostly missing in english, except for example: a blonde beer. It’s never a blond beer. So beers are female in English, as in Spanish and French. Coinkindink? I don’t think so. Completely wrong. In English, adjectives do not agree in gender or number with the noun they modify. “Woman” is usually\* feminine in English (e.g. you will say “I met a woman. She is American.” not “I met a woman. It is American.”) but adjectives that modify “woman” aren’t changed from their neuter form. “Blond/blonde”, as previously mentioned, are functionally equivalent in English; they’re not a masculine/neuter and a feminine version of some adjective. As for “beer”, it’s definitely neuter. Would you say “I drank a beer. She was good”? \*It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-say-latino-woman-in-english/596149/43 "2011-09-17T15:42:28Z")
No, I wouldn’t say that. But the blond/blonde issue aren’t “functionally equivalent” when people make a distinction in its usage. An interesting side note: boats are occasionally referred to as “she”. As my previous post mentioned, I know that English doesn’t have the gender distinction concept for inanimate objects, however it seems to have it as a small vestigial appendix… So in the few cases where there is gender distinction, it should be respected. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2011, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-say-latino-woman-in-english/596149/44 "2011-09-17T16:18:12Z")
> [@The\_Niply\_Elder](#): > > No, I wouldn’t say that. But the blond/blonde issue aren’t “functionally equivalent” when people make a distinction in its usage. If so, it’d be a rare, perhaps unique, example of an English adjective that is declined according to gender. Though I suspect it’s hypercorrection on the part of English speakers (writers). For that matter, I have no problem with “blond beer”. > [@](#): > > An interesting side note: boats are occasionally referred to as “she”. As my previous post mentioned, I know that English doesn’t have the gender distinction concept for inanimate objects, however it seems to have it as a small vestigial appendix… So in the few cases where there is gender distinction, it should be respected. There is a grammatical gender system in English, though, as you say, it’s mostly vestigial. But that doesn’t change the fact that most if not all English adjectives do not agree with the noun they modify in gender (or number). Nobody claims English has no grammatical number, despite the fact that you wouldn’t say “blondes women”. > [@Johanna](#): > > OK, I went back and looked at the phrase I’d cited that made me think of posting the OP—actually, the phrase used was “Latino girlfriend.” No problem at all with “Latino girlfriend”; it’s even better than “Latino woman” which, as pointed out, could simply be shortened to “Latina”. “Latina girlfriend” (pronounced “lah-TEEEEEEEEE-nah”) is what would be Peggy Hillish to me. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-say-latino-woman-in-english/596149/45 "2011-09-18T15:14:24Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > No problem at all with “Latino girlfriend” Yes, there is a problem, as many here have concurred. It just looks _wrong_. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-say-latino-woman-in-english/596149/46 "2011-09-18T18:30:25Z")
I don’t think it looks wrong, and nor does **Balthisar** , as well as others who’ve posted here. So that’s a matter of opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-say-latino-woman-in-english/596149/47 "2011-09-18T21:29:49Z")
So there’s no definite objective answer to the question. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-correct-to-say-latino-woman-in-english/596149.md?page=2)