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Identifying a German Words Gender

German grammar has some striking differences to English grammar. One difference that
newcomers to German notice right away has to do with word gender.
Basically, you have three genders in German masculine, feminine, and neuter and although
English has the same three genders, they play a very different role in German grammar. Gender in
English is whats called natural gender; for instance, boy and girl are examples of masculine and
feminine gender words, while computer is an example of a neuter gender word.
In German, most gender is unnatural. So instead of referring to a words meaning, gender refers to
the word itself. To point out the gender of nouns, you use different gender markers. The three
gender markers that mean the (singular) in German are der (masculine), die (feminine), and das
(neuter). The plural form of the definite article is die. English has only one gender marker for the
definite article of all nouns, namely the.
Look at the words for eating utensils, where you have all three bases covered: der Lffel (the
spoon), die Gabel (the fork), and das Messer (the knife). Why should a spoon be masculine, a fork
feminine, and a knife neuter? Dont worry if you dont see any logical pattern here because there
isnt one.
So how do you know how to form/use genders correctly in German? First, remember that gender is
an integral part of each noun; its like a piece of the nouns identity. So when you add new German
nouns to your vocab, be sure to learn the article of each noun at the same time. You wont be able
to use a noun correctly if you dont know its article. The following table breaks down the three
definite articles der, die, and das by gender, and shows an example for each.
German Definite Articles by Gender (Nominative Case)
German Definite Article (English

Gender (Abbreviation Seen in

German Example (English

meaning)

Dictionaries)

meaning)

der (the)

masculine (m)

der Lffel (the spoon)

die (the)

feminine (f)

die Gabel (the fork)

das (the)

neuter (n or nt)

das Messer (the knife)

die (the)

plural (pl)

die Menschen (the people)

Some categories of nouns are consistently masculine, feminine, or neuter. For instance, noun
gender usually follows the gender of people: der Onkel (the uncle) and die Schwester (the sister).
In many other cases, the noun categories have to do with the ending of the noun. The following
two tables provide some fairly reliable categories of nouns and their genders.

Common Genders by Noun Ending (Or Beginning)


Usually Masculine (der)

Usually Feminine (die)

Usually Neuter (das)

-er

when

-ade, -age, -anz, -enz, -ette, -ine, -ion,

-chen

male

-tur (if foreign/borrowed from another

(especially

referring

to

people/jobs)

language)

-ich

-e

-ium

-ismus

-ei

-lein

-ist

-heit

-ment (if foreign/borrowed


from another language)

-ner

-ie

-o

-ik

-tum or -um

-in

(when

referring

to

female

Ge-

people/occupations)
-keit
-schaft
-tt
-ung
Common Genders by Noun Subject
Usually Masculine (der)

Usually Feminine (die)

Usually Neuter (das)

Days, months, and seasons: der

Many flowers: die Rose

Colors (adjectives) used as nouns:

Freitag (Friday)

(the rose)

grn

(green)

das Grn (the green)


Map locations: der Sd(en)

Many trees: die Buche

Geographic place names: das

(the south)

(the beech)

Europa (Europe)

Names of cars and trains: der

Names

and

Infinitives

Audi (the Audi) and der ICE

ships: die Boeing 767 (the

(gerunds):

(the Intercity Express)

Boeing 767), die Titanic

swim)

(the Titanic)

das Schwimmen (swimming)

Nationalities and words showing

Cardinal

of

aircraft

numbers:

eine

used

as

nouns

schwimmen

(to

Young people and animals: das

citizenship:

der

Amerikaner

Drei (a three)

Baby (the baby)

(the American)
Occupations:

der

Arzt

(the

doctor)

Almost all the chemical elements


and

most

metals:

das

Aluminium (aluminum) and das


Blei (lead)
Names of most mountains and
lakes: der Groglockner (the
highest mountain in Austria)
Most rivers outside of Europe:
der Amazonas (the Amazon)

This very simple trick helps my students to learn German articles really easily

It really can become a piece of cake, although Mark Twain was unfortunately right as he wrote:
Every noun has a gender, and there is no sense or system in the distribution; so the gender of each
must be learned separately and by heart. There is no other way. To do this one has to have a
memory like a memorandum-book.
Mark Twain: The Awful German Language
Now, apparently he has managed to achieve it in some way, finally he did speak and write an
excellentGerman.
But lets for one more time be alert of what Mark Twain exactly says:
1. The attribution of the articles doesnt make any sense neither is there a system!
Unfortunately this is true.

2.To learn the German articles, you need a super-memory (like a memorandom-book). This is
true as well! And here you learn that you already have this super-memory; you only lack the right
technique!
Many of you will now probably say: Wait a moment, this isnt right! There is definitely a system!
Of course, youre right, at least there is a little system, namely the so called gender specific
endings. For not complicating it too much, we call them simply the special endings, which
indicate the right article.
Here are a few examples
The ending -ung is always feminine, thus die.

The ending -or is alway masculine, thus der.

The ending -chen is always neuter, thus das.

There are a few of these endings, although many of them have exceptions as well, and so there is
an ongoing argument between linguists, which ones are special endings and which ones are not.
We dont want to get involved in this argument, we concentrate on a few endings, which really
(almost) always indicate the correct article.
Many students of German have already come across learning tips for German articles such as this
one, in their textbook:

But honestly: Who is actually able to memorize these endings?


What are Quasi-Words?
Quasi is Latin, and means in English how. And that here is the Trick:
We arrange the syllables in a way, that we can pronounce them as a word. And for this we invent a
short story together with a nice image.
And here is how it works:

Der Ig-ling-or-(i)smus

This bacillus is responsible for the use of articles in the German language! Repeat this word slowly
with me, until you know it by heart.
Do you notice, that the Bazillus has a few prickles, like a
hedgehog (German der Igel)? Remember this for later. It
will help you to remember the first syllable: Ig-ling This
way its easier to distinguish this Quasi-word from the other
ones.

This

woman

is

scientist

at

the

institution

of

Heit-ung-keit-ei-schaft-tion-(i)tt-ik.
There she does research for a vaccine against den Iglingorismus.
The word is fairly long, but dont give up immediately! Pronounce it
slowly, together with me, and keep repeating it, until you know it.
Imagine how cheerful (heiter) the woman is while working. That reminds you of the first
syllable: Heit-ung-keit

Finally,

want

to

introduce

you

to

das Tum-chen-ma-ment-um-lein
It will always be on your side in the future, and whisper the correct articles in your ear.
As you can see, this Quasi-word is again a lot shorter and therefore even more easy to learn.
And there we go again
This little being frolics (tummelt) always in your vicinity, to help
you. This way you remember easily the first syllable: Tum-chen
But what if there are no special endings?

And lets be honest most of the time there are none


Thats too bad! With these nouns its impossible to detect the correct article by their ending. And
lets remember Mark Twain: So one must learn the gender together with the noun, there is no
other way.
But:
WHY is this actually so difficult?
HOW can you learn these articles IN A MUCH EASIER WAY?
In my eBook-package youll find the answers to these questions and a bunch of more really smart
tricks which help you significantly with your learning German.
More help to learn German articles from Akkiz
Akkiz Coskun, teacher of German from Ediene Koleji in Turkey, has provided an outstanding
method for the learning of the articles through the theme of body parts.
She uses for each article a symbol, and visualizes hereby the corresponding body parts:
The

monkey (der

The

baby (das

Affe)
Baby)

is
is

a
a

The singer Beyonce is a symbol for the article die.


And here is how Akkiz students learn the body parts:

symbol
symbol

for
for

the

article der.

the

article das.

masculine
neuter

der Mund

das Haar, das Gesicht,

der Zahn

das Auge,das Bein,

der Finger

das Knie

der Kopf
der Hals
der Arm
der Rcken
der Bauch
der Fu

feminine
die Nase, die Schulter, die Brust, die Hand

For the theme of clothing, Akkiz has developed a wonderful action-based method. The children put
on the clothes, and wear the mask (of the baby or the monkey) which corresponds to the article!

With this lively method, the students find it obviously a lot easier to memorize the articles! Have a
look for yourself:
das Kleid

der Mantel

http://www.learn-german-smarter.com/learning-german-articles/

German Articles Part 1

We use nouns for people, objects, things or ideas. Nouns are normally (not always) preceded by an
article. Nouns are always written with a capital letter in German.

In German we have three main articles:


der (masculine), die (feminine) and das (neuter).

For example:
der Mann (the man)
die Frau (the woman)
das Tier (the animal)

The articles change depending on


the gender (masculine, feminine, neuter)
the number (singular or plural)
and the case (nominative, genitive, dative and accusative)

The different forms can be: der, die, das, des, dem and den depending on gender, number and
case. We are going to show how to handle the articles step by step so dont worry. This site is
only part 1.

The Gender
The best method to get familiar to the articles is by listening a lot to the German language. We
dont recommend learning words by heart but if you like to memorize words you should never learn
just the nouns! Always try to remember also the main articles der, die and das.
The grammatical gender does not follow a logical set of rules but there are some noun endings
which give us a hint. But be careful, it does not always work!
By the way, have a look at the English endings too. A lot of English and German words are similar.
The article: der (masculine)

-ling
der Hftling (the prisoner)
der Frhling (the spring)
der Flchtling (the refugee)
der Sugling (the infant)
der Lehrling (the apprentice)
der Zwilling (the twin)

-or
der Humor (the humor)
der Doktor (the doctor)
der Tresor (the safe)
der Professor (the professor)
der Motor (the motor)

-ist
der Optimist (the optimist)
der Pianist (the pianist)
der Polizist (the policeman)
der Spezialist (the specialist)

-ismus
der Egoismus (the egoism)
der Tourismus (the tourism)
der Pazifismus (the pacifism)

-er
der Hrer (the receiver)
der Jger (the hunter)
der Kfer (the bug, the beetle)
der Krper (the body)
der Tiger (the tiger)
der Bcker (the baker)
der Donner (the thunder)

The article: die (feminine)

-keit
die Mdigkeit (the tiredness)
die Sigkeit (the sweetness, the candy)
die Fhigkeit (the ability)
die Hufigkeit (the frequency)
die Flssigkeit (the liquid, the fluid)
die Geschwindigkeit (the speed, the velocity)
die Frhlichkeit (the joyfulness)

-schaft
die Erbschaft (the inheritance , the heritage)
die Landschaft (the landscape, the countryside)
die Kundschaft (the customers, the clientele)
die Wissenschaft (the science)
die Eigenschaft (the characteristic)
die Freundschaft (the friendship)
die Gesellschaft (the society)

-enz
die Intelligenz (the intelligence)
die Konsequenz (the consequence)
die Frequenz (the frequency)
die Existenz (the existence)
die Differenz (the difference)
die Tendenz (the tendency)

-ion
die Portion (the portion)
die Region (the region)
die Station (the station)
die Reaktion (the reaction)
die Situation (the situation)
die Nation (the nation)
die Tradition (the tradition)

-heit
die Feigheit (the cowardice)
die Schnheit (the beauty)
die Klugheit (the cleverness)
die Bldheit (the stupidity)
die Dummheit (the foolishness)
-tt
die Normalitt (the normality)
die Spezialitt (the speciality)
die Elektrizitt (the electricity)
die Flexibilitt (the flexibility)
die Kontinuitt (the continuity)
-ung
die nderung (the change)
die Abteilung (the department)
die Einladung (the invitation)
die Anleitung (the instruction)
die Forschung (the research)

The article: das (neuter)


nis
das Schulzeugnis (the school certificate)
das Gedchtnis (the memory)
das Erlebnis (the experience)
das Geheimnis (the secret)
das Hindernis (the obstacle)

ment
das Dokument (the document)
das Sortiment (the assortment)
das Zement (the cement)
das Komplement (the complement)
das Medikament (the medication, the medicine)
das Instrument (the instrument)

Sometimes these endings are used to belittle a noun.


lein / chen
der Vogel (the bird) => das Vgelchen (the little bird, the birdie)
das Buch (the book) => das Bchlein (the booklet)

Compound Words
If you have a compound word, the gender of the compound word matches the gender of the last
word.
Examples:
der Wind + die Mhle = die Windmhle (the windmill)
das Spiel + der Platz = der Spielplatz (the playground)
die Frage + das Zeichen = das Fragezeichen (the question mark)

More examples of compound words:


das Wohnzimmer + die Lampe = die Wohnzimmerlampe (the living room lamp)
die Haustr + der Schlssel = der Haustrschlssel (the front door key)
das Klo + die Brste = die Klobrste (the toilet brush)
die Bank + das Konto = das Bankkonto (the bank account)
der Kredit + der Rahmen = der Kreditrahmen (credit line)
der Wein + die Flasche = die Weinflasche (the wine bottle)

Masculine
Male people, male animals

der Mann, der Professor, der Lehrer, der Stier

Many instruments/things that der


Computer,
der
do things (when these words Kugelschreiber, der Motor
end in -er or -or)

Toaster,

der

Days, months, seasons, most der Tag, der Freitag, der September, der
weather
Winter
elements
der Schnee, der Regen, der Nebel [=fog]
Points on the compass:

der Norden, der Sden, der Osten, der


Westen

Makes (names) of cars:

der Volkswagen/der VW, der Porsche, der


Toyota
BUT NOTE: das Auto

Most non-German rivers

der Mississippi, der Mekong, der Nil, der


Amazonas

Most nouns ending in -en

der Garten, der Hafen [=harbour], der Ofen


[=oven]

Nouns ending in
-ig

der Honig [=honey], der Kfig [=cage]

-ling

der Schwchling [=weakling]

-ant

der Elefant, der Lieferant [=supplier], der


Kontrast

-us

der Idealismus, der Kommunismus, der Zirkus

Feminine
Female people, female animals die Frau, die Professorin, die Kuh, die Gans
Most German rivers

die Donau, die Mosel, die Elbe, die Weser, die


Oder
BUT NOTE: der Rhein, der Main

Most nouns ending in -e

BUT NOTE: der Kse, der Name, das Ende,


das Auge, der Affe [and other animals], der
Biologe [and other male job designations], der
Kunde [=customer]

Nouns ending in
-ei

die Bcherei (library), die Datei (file [on a computer])

-schaft

die
Wissenschaft
[=science],
die
Freundschaft
[=friendship]; die Wirtschaft [=economy; also means
"pub"!]

-heit/ -keit

die Dummheit [=stupidity], die Schwierigkeit [=difficulty]

-ung

die Landung [=landing], die Bedeutung [=meaning]

-tt

die Universitt, die Elektrizitt

-ion

die Situation, die Religion, die Funktion

-ik

die Logik, die Ethik, die Symbolik, die Mechanik

-ie

die Philosophie, die Biologie, die Monotonie, die Magie

-enz/ -anz

die Frequenz, die Toleranz, die Diskrepanz

-ur

die Kultur, die Prozedur, die Natur

Neuter
Human
babies

babies

and

Most metals

animal das Baby, das Kind, das Kalb, das Lamm

das Gold, das Kupfer, das Silber, das Nickel,


das Kadmium

Verb infinitives turned into das Leben [=life], das Schwimmen (as in:
nouns
Swimming is fun)
Collectives with Ge-

das Gebude [=building], das Gebirge


[=mountain
range],
das
Geschrei
[=screaming], das Gebsch [=bushes]

Nouns w. diminutive suffixes: - das Kindlein, das Mdchen, das Hartmutchen


chen, -lein (and their dialect Hnsel & Gretel
forms: -le, -erl, -el, -li)
Nouns ending in -ment or - das Experiment, das Museum, das Datum,
(i)um
das Opium

Fun Facts (Which gender is most common? Does gender affect the way we think?)
Click here for an article by Duden (in German) that includes the following fun facts:
98.7% of German nouns have a single gender. Just under 1.3% can be used with two genders, and
.02% can be used with all three genders. Less than 0.1% of nouns have no gender at all (e.g. AIDS,
Allerheiligen (a holiday)).
Of the nouns with a unique gender, 46% are feminine, 34% masculine, and 20% neuter. So, if in
doubt about the gender of a noun, guess "die" :)
Click here for a generally fascinating article on the results of actual empirical research on how
language affects the way we think. Here are some things this article says about gender:
Does treating chairs as masculine and beds as feminine in the grammar make Russian speakers
think of chairs as being more like men and beds as more like women in some way? It turns out that
it does. In one study, we asked German and Spanish speakers to describe objects having opposite
gender assignment in those two languages. The descriptions they gave differed in a way predicted
by grammatical gender. For example, when asked to describe a "key" a word that is masculine
in German and feminine in Spanish the German speakers were more likely to use words like
"hard," "heavy," "jagged," "metal," "serrated," and "useful," whereas Spanish speakers were
more likely to say "golden," "intricate," "little," "lovely," "shiny," and "tiny." To describe a
"bridge," which is feminine in German and masculine in Spanish, the German speakers said

"beautiful," "elegant," "fragile," "peaceful," "pretty," and "slender," and the Spanish speakers
said "big," "dangerous," "long," "strong," "sturdy," and "towering." This was true even though
all testing was done in English, a language without grammatical gender. The same pattern of results
also emerged in entirely nonlinguistic tasks (e.g., rating similarity between pictures). And we can
also show that it is aspects of language per se that shape how people think: teaching English
speakers new grammatical gender systems influences mental representations of objects in the same
way it does with German and Spanish speakers. Apparently even small flukes of grammar, like the
seemingly arbitrary assignment of gender to a noun, can have an effect on people's ideas of
concrete objects in the world.
In fact, you don't even need to go into the lab to see these effects of language; you can see them
with your own eyes in an art gallery. Look at some famous examples of personification in art the
ways in which abstract entities such as death, sin, victory, or time are given human form. How does
an artist decide whether death, say, or time should be painted as a man or a woman? It turns out
that in 85 percent of such personifications, whether a male or female figure is chosen is predicted
by the grammatical gender of the word in the artist's native language. So, for example, German
painters are more likely to paint death as a man, whereas Russian painters are more likely to paint
death as a woman.

http://www.deutsched.com/Grammar/Lessons/0202nominative.php

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