Years ago, while teaching Spanish to beginners, I overheard the following exchange between two seventh-grade boys.
A. I think I’m supposed to write “Somos altos,” but it doesn’t seem right. I have four sisters. Isn’t it better to write “Somos altas,” since there are more girls than boys in the family?
B. Dude, if there’s even one dude in the group, that’s it, it’s a dude group.
I have had the phrase dude group stuck in my head ever since. As a translator, I am regularly faced with a quandary: How can I communicate in English that a French or Spanish text is referring to a dude group?
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