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
Cutlery and Allied Trades Research Association Cutlery and Allied Trades Research Association Cutlery and Allied Trades Research Association (CATRA) is an internationally known research and technology organisation in Sheffield, England which specialises in knives, cutlery, tableware, metallic holloware (such as saucepans), shaving razors, industrial knives/ blades and hand/garden tools. CATRA was originally set up by the British Government in 1952 to carry out developments for the UK's cutlery and knife industries, for which the area of Sheffield in Yorkshire is world-famous. CATRA has developed a range of unique machines for measuring the cutting performance of all types of cutting edges from razor blades to large knives