Key points about the gender of nouns
- All German nouns have a Nouns in German are classified into three groups: masculine, feminine or neuter. Each noun therefore has a gender.: they can be masculine, feminine or neuter.
- The gender of some nouns are obvious, for example der Vaterfather (masculine) and die Muttermother (feminine), but many others are not.
- When learning a new noun, always learn its gender too.
Video
Watch this video to learn more about how to work out gender in German.
All nouns in German are either masculine, feminine or neuter.
How to use genders and articles in German.
All nouns in German are either masculine, feminine or neuter.
When you learn that the word for dog is 'Hund', that it’s a masculine noun 'der Hund'.
For masculine nouns 'der' means 'the' 'der Hund' 'the dog'.
For feminine nouns 'die' means 'the' 'die Katze' 'the cat'.
And for neuter nouns 'das' means 'the' 'das Kaninchen' 'the rabbit'.
There’s also more than one word for 'a'
So 'ein' is 'a' for masculine nouns 'ein Hund'. 'eine' is 'a' for a feminine nouns 'eine Katze', and 'ein' is 'a' for a neuter nouns ‘ein Kaninchen’.
So how do you know the gender of a noun?
Well, there are clues to help you.
Sometimes the gender is logical like father is masculine 'der Vater' and mother is feminine 'die Mutter'.
Sometimes there are groups of nouns that are a certain gender.
For example days of the week are masculine 'der Montag' and lots of drinks are masculine too'der Kaffee'.
Words ending in 'e' are usually feminine 'die Lampe' 'the lamp'.
Whereas words borrowed from English are usually neuter for example 'das Internet', 'das Baby'.
So it’s really good to learn the gender with the noun so you know whether it's 'der, die or das' or 'ein, eine or ein'.
Check your understanding
The gender of a noun is important as it impacts lots of other things like the Refers to the words for ‘the’, ‘a/an’. and An adjective is a describing word. which surround that noun.
Nouns are either singular or plural.
Masculine nouns
These are nouns that take the article der in German (usually referring to male people or certain objects). nouns can be worked out by the meaning or ending of the noun.
- Male people and animals (der Mann, der Hund), days (der Samstag), months (der November), seasons (der Sommer) and some weather nouns (der Regen) are often masculine.
- Nouns with the endings -er, -en, -el, -ig, -ling, -or and -us are also usually masculine.
| Noun ending | Examples of nouns |
|---|---|
| -er | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -en | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -el | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -ig | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -ling | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -or | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -us | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
Feminine nouns
A grammatical gender used for many female nouns (person or animal) and certain objects. nouns include:
- Female people and animals (die Frau, die Katze) and some names of transport (die Titanic).
- Nouns with the endings -ei, -e, -heit/keit, -ung, -schaft, -tion, -ik, -ität, -ie, -ur
| Noun ending | Examples of nouns |
|---|---|
| -ei | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -e | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -heit | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -keit | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -ung | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -schaft | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -tion | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -ik | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -ität | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -ie | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -ur | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
Neuter nouns
A grammatical gender used for many nouns such as young people or animals and certain objects. nouns include:
- Infinitives used as nouns (das Schwimmen), young animals and people (das Baby, das Kätzchen), hotels, cafes and restaurants (das Café, das Hotel) and most metals (das Gold).
- Nouns with endings -chen, -lein, -ment, -um, --tum
| Noun ending | Examples of nouns |
|---|---|
| -chen | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -lein | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -ment | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -um | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
| -tum | Check your connection, refresh the page and try again. |
Quiz
Take this multiple choice quiz to revise the gender of German nouns.
More on Nouns, determiners and cases
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