To find out how gender may influence people´s language, women and men were interviewed and here are some of the findings:

WOMEN

Women seemed to let other speakers dominate the discussion. While interviewing women, they looked for signs of agreement between what they were saying and the listener´s reaction. They spoke carefully in order to respect each other's turns and they tended to apologies for talking too much. Some specific characteristics found in women´s speech are: polite forms e.g. would you please...I'd really appreciate it if; tag questions e.g. isn´t it?; intonational language e.g. it´s really nice, adjectives such as charming, sweet, adorable; careful grammar and pronunciation (there were a lot of pauses to take time and formulate their answers), short answers (seemed to wonder if they were doing well). One of them asked me to stop the recording twice so she can formulate her answer. In my sample, I found two cases in which the woman has self-corrected herself. Even though women tended to be more sensitive and emphatic with their listeners it is also suggested that women tended to take control over the conversation.

MEN

Young men tended to jump from one idea to another. They told anecdotes about their achievements. They rarely involved their feelings or their personal problems in the conversation. The young ones agreed that they do not change their speech even when they are in front of their family. Besides, they tended to say words like “wey” to their best friends; because, this was a sign of a close relationship instead of an insult. On the other hand, old men tended to be more formal and use the word “usted”. I realized that some men talked more than others. They didn't feel the need to link their own contributions to others. Instead, they were more likely to ignore what has been said before and to stress their own point of view. They did not seem intimidate by being recorded; on the contrary, they spoke as if they were with friends in a casual conversation.

Do you agree? How do you perceive men and women ways to speak? Leave us a comment with your opinion