Gfyuki

I am coming across sentences where человек is used instead of мужчина, when does this happen and why?

Example:

That man is not a professor he is a doctor

Этот человек не профессор доктор

тот человек не профессор он доктор

It's just Russian happens to be more gender-neutral than English, at least in the case of человек which can mean 'man', 'person' or 'human being' depending on context:

• Она - хороший человек / друг. = She is a good person / friend.


• Этот человек - твоя мать!


• Одному человеку стало плохо. = Someone felt sick.


• Лифт вмещает 5 человек.


• Этот человек спас тебе жизнь. = This man saved your life.

Use мужчина only when you want to emphasise their masculinity:

• Он вел себя как мужчина. = He behaved like a man.

I think Bolsheviks' idea of everyone's equality has contributed to this effect. Before the revolution of 1917 it was customary to use господин/госпожа (or молодой человек / барышня for younger people) in the context you mentioned:

• Этот господин - врач. = This man is a doctor.

In those days человек was used to call (and refer to) servants.

Человек is a man/human in general. Мужчина is used when you want to highlight that a person is a male as well. For example - A man is strong. Человек силён. But Мужчина по природе своей - воин. A man is a fighter by nature. (here we specify that he is a male) So is you want to say something in general use человек. When you want to add than the person you are talking about is male then use мужчина.

I think this phenomenon is caused by 2 reasons:

• the noun 'человек' has a male gender in Russian (most significant)


• 'мужчина' in Russian is more about a symbol: age and character

First of all, as you know, in Russian most nouns have male or female gender (there is also a 'middle' gender, but it is more rare, and used mostly for nature). 'Человек' means 'human' and its gender is male, while 'персона' means 'person' and its gender is female. This happened somewhen in history, I don't know. What to add: it is strange in Russian to describe person in one gender (women, for example) using nouns in other gender (you could see a separate thread about this topic).

The other reason not to use gender is that the word 'мужчина' is linked to the symbol of the person. 'Мужчина' is a grown-up, independent male person (+ a bit of stereotypes about self-confidence and brutality), full of energy. Women underline cliche, police underlines gender. I think feminists will never stop in Russian the usage of expressions like 'быть мужчиной' (to be a man), 'становиться мужчиной' (become/grow up to a man), because this partice is less linked to a separate man in the language. Wive can say her husband is not 'мужчина'. 'Мужчина' is (by priority):

1. gender


2. symbol


3. age

So it becomes logical, that when you wish to abstract from 'мужчина' to a separate noun, closer to 'person', you use 'человек'. In Russian man (male) never says 'мужчина' about his someone from his surrounding: college, friend, member of a team, etc. - use status (friend, college...) or 'парень' (=guy) instead.