of the German Language.

Explains why truu consistently uses the "du" (informal you) form of address and why the company uses grammatical gender rather than gender-inclusive writing. The article clarifies the difference between grammatical gender and biological sex and truu's stance on equal treatment.

The "du" form of address at truu

As a modern company with a special sales concept in which customers are fully involved and make an important contribution through their recommendations, we see ourselves as a strong community in all areas of the company. As is customary in clubs, associations, or other groups of people who are very close to each other, we emphasize our team spirit with the "du" form and therefore make no distinction between customers, partners, office staff, production, or service. For us, all people are equal, and therefore the human being is at the center. Everyone counts and contributes to supporting our vision. truu's vision is a better life with perfect water, in its most original form, available to everyone on this planet, ecologically, sustainably, truu.

truu uses grammatical gender and thus prevents confusion through gender-inclusive language

In the German language, there is a natural sex (sexus) and a grammatical gender (genus). Feminist linguists like to confuse the two, or rather to say it plainly: throw them wildly together. Yet even linguistic laypeople, if their view is not clouded by ideology, can easily recognize the difference. First, there are three gender forms (masculine, feminine, neuter), but only two biological sexes (male and female). Second, gender is also used for objects without any apparent parallel to natural sex: der Herd (the stove), die Straße (the street), or das Buch (the book). Also, the fact that der Busen (the breast) is masculine, die Eichel (the acorn) is feminine, and das Glied (the member) is neuter is obviously not based on any biological backgrounds. Similarly, this applies to, for example, der Leser (the reader) or der Kunde (the customer). While gender is used in a supragendered manner (der Gast, der Mensch, die Person, die Waise, das Kind, das Individuum—the guest, the human, the person, the orphan, the child, the individual), sex represents a further subdivision into male and female.

We are dealing here with something that in linguistics is called "homonymy." Homonyms are identically sounding words that mean different things. A "Flügel" (wing), for example, can be the part of a bird, the part of a soccer team, or a piano. Sometimes these homonyms are not so easy to distinguish, and that is when misunderstandings arise, as in feminist linguistics. "Kunden" (customers) can indeed mean two different things: "people who shop" as well as "men who shop." By claiming that "customers" refers only to men, language critics create the impression that women are linguistically oppressed. They do not go by what people mean when they say something, but by what they attribute to them that they mean: "You only talk about the men! You leave us women out in the cold again!"

But that is just as annoying as it is incorrect.

Furthermore, the article in the singular with grammatical gender makes the distinction between der Kunde (male customer) and die Kunde (the news) as well as der Leiter (the leader/pipe) and die Leiter (the ladder)…

For exactly the reasons just explained, 99 female teachers and one male teacher together are one hundred teachers: this is because the grammatical generic term is used as soon as there is even any mixed group. Without such a generic term that applies to both sexes, certain facts could not be formulated at all (such as "Every third entrepreneur in Germany is a woman" or "We don't even know the sex of the suspect.") A "day" with its 24 hours consists of day and night, just as "the customer" can be male or female—regardless of its grammatical gender. Similarly, this applies to "die Katze" (the cat): the feminine form stands as a generic term for both the female animal and the male animal, which we, if we wish to specify it more precisely, call "der Kater" (tom cat)—just as "the customer," when female, becomes "die Kundin." To claim that "the customer" means only men simply because "the" (masculine article) is in front of it is grammatically about as well thought out as the argument that "the customers" apparently means only women because "the" (feminine article plural) is in front of it. In reality, of course, neither article expresses biological sex: "the" (plural) refers to the plural form, "the" (masculine singular) refers to the gender. Only through the consistent double naming in feminist language "the customers and female customers" is sexism introduced into the language, where it previously did not exist due to the gender-neutral generic term.

Moreover, a male employee can more often be "the substitute" for a colleague.

At truu, we understand the distinction between grammatical gender and biological sex and therefore use generic terms according to grammatical gender. We treat men and women equally with respect and as equivalent partners on our team. Salary differences and advancement opportunities are based on area of responsibility as well as on the performance and abilities of employees, not on sex. If everyone treats each other the way they would like to be treated themselves, we will continue to have perfect harmony together. Because only this way do we support emancipation—not through cumbersome gender-speak and gender-writing style.