German grammar with the natural gender of what is described. However, since the diminutive forms ending in "-chen" or "-lein" are grammatically neuter, there exist several notable counterexamples such as "das Mädchen" ("girl") and "das Fräulein" ("miss"). Thus these are not illogical, whereas "das Weib" (old, regional or anthropological: woman; a cognate of the English "wife") is really an exception. Furthermore, in German, the gender of nouns without natural gender is not predictable. For example, the three common pieces of cutlery all have different genders: "das Messer" ("knife") is neuter, "die Gabel" ("fork") is feminine, and "der Löffel" ("spoon") is masculine. Students
Messer Group held two third of the company shares. Around 1997 to 2004 the gas and welding related sections were bought back by the Messer Family building the current Messer Group GmbH. The company subsidiaries for Germany, UK and the US were sold to Air Liquide, including a four-year Non-compete clause for the Messer Group. After the expiration of the non-compete clause in 2008 the Messer Group GmbH is selling gases for industrial use again. Messer Tehnogas AD have production sites in seven cities in Serbia - Belgrade, Novi Sad, Bor, Niš, Pančevo, Smederevo and Kraljevo Messer Group The Messer Group GmbH