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Nouns: and their articles: der, die or das?
Here you will find all the important information about the gender of nouns in the German language.
What is "grammatical gender"?
In the German language, every noun has a gender: the grammatical gender.
There are three genders: masculine (male) - feminine (female) - neutral (neuter)
Unfortunately, it is not always possible to immediately recognize which gender a noun has.
It is therefore best to always learn a new noun together with the definite article and the plural form.
The definite article gives information about the noun. He gives hints about:
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Gender (der, die, das).
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Number: singular or plural
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Case: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive
The definite (bestimmte) and the indefinite (unbestimmte) article at a glance:
The article for the plural is easy!
For masculine, feminine, neutral - always:
d i e
For the noun:
The grammatical gender and the natural/biological gender are not always the same in people.
Example:
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das Mädchen - The grammatical gender is neutral, although the girl is feminine.
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das Mannchen - The grammatical gender is neutral, although the little man is male.
The grammatical gender is not logical.
Examples:
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the spoon - the fork - the knife
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the letter, the word, the language
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the wine - the lemonade - the beer
Often the grammatical gender is different than in other languages.
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Italian: il sole (masculine) - German: die Sonne (feminine)
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Spanish: la luna (feminine) - German: der Mond (masculine)
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French: la table (feminine) - German: der Tisch (masculine)
The best way to learn new nouns is always together with the
gender and the plural form
BUT: you can still learn the grammatical gender easily!
There are helpful rules listed below.
Why do we need the grammatical gender?
Nouns are classified into three categories by gender. These categories help us to show connections in conversation or in longer texts.
Sometimes there are several other words (= noun phrase ) between the noun and its article.
THe gender tells us they belong together. It helps structure the text .
Example:
Der höchste und am schwierigsten zu besteigende Berg der Welt.
Die aus Rundfunk und Fernsehen bekannte und sehr beliebte Moderatorin.
Heute wird uns das spannende, für Kinder ab dem Lesealter geeignete Buch vorgestellt.
The gender is helpful, if there are pronouns:
Example:
Max: "Der Computer ist neu und die Tastatur ist alt".
Eva: "Hast du ihn geschenkt bekommen?" = den Computer
"Hast du sie geschenkt bekommen?" = die Tastatur
Frau Müller geht mit ihrem Mann und ihrem Kind spazieren.
"Sie ist wirklich nett" = Frau Müller
"Er ist wirklich nett" = der Mann
"Es ist wirklich nett" = das Kind
But:
Frau Müller geht mit ihrer Schwester und ihrer Freundin spazieren.
Now we've got the female gender three times. If we want to tell who is nice, we need to repeat the noun:
Frau Müller / ihre Schwester / ihre Freundin ist wirklich nett.
The gender is like the shirt number of players
on a soccer field!
der, die or das - How do I find the right article?
There are rules that help to find out the gender and thus the correct article.
Here you will find all the rules that always or almost always apply and are therefore important for learners of German.
The natural (biological) gender of people
Gender usually follows biological gender.
Words for men almost always have "der"
der Mann, der Vater, der Junge, der Opa, der Onkel
typical masculine endings are:
-er der Lehrer, der Schüler, der Fahrer, der Bayer
-ant der Emigrant, der Lieferant, der Repräsentant
-ent der Patient, the Präsident, the Student
-ist der Jurist, der Journalist, der Optimist, der Tourist
-or der Autor, der Direktor, der Moderator
-e der Franzose, der Kollege
-mann der Kaufmann, der Fachmann
Words for women almost always have "die"
die Frau, die Mutter, die Oma, die Tante
if you add -in to the masculine ending, you get the feminine form:
die Lehrerin, die Schülerin, die Fahrerin, die Bayerin
die Emigrantin, die Lieferantin, die Repräsentantin
die Patientin, die Studentin, die Präsidentin
die Juristin, die Journalistin, die Optimistin, die Touristin
die Autorin, die Direktorin, die Moderatorin
die Französin, die Kollegin
-frau die Kauffrau, die Fachfrau
Exceptions:
das Kind or das Baby can be a girl or a boy.
Words ending in -chen and -lein have "das":
das Väterchen, das Männlein, das Mädchen, das Mütterlein
the endings -chen and -lein are diminutives :
"-chen and -lein makes everything small"
The word "Mädchen" comes from the medieval word "die magd"
The plural of people
The plural article is always "die": die Männer und die Frauen.
The grammatical gender is not the same as the biological gender:
Masculine personal designations therefore denote men in the plural and women:
die Studente, die Patienten, die Kollegen, ...
This linguistic peculiarity has been the subject of debate in the German-speaking public for decades. Some women feel discriminated against by the generic (= grammatical) masculine.
That's why you often find new forms today:
Schülerinnen und Schüler/ die Lernenden / die LernerInnnen / die Lerner*Innen
At some universities it is now seen as a mistake not to use these new forms!
Determination of grammatical gender according to meaning
The meaning can also give clues.
The following nouns are always masculine
times of the day, weekdays, months, seasons
der Morgen, der Abend, der Mittwoch, der Sonntag, der Januar, der Frühling, der Winter...
(Ausnahmen: die Nacht, die Mitternacht)
Points of the compass
der Norden, der Süden, der Osten, Westen, der Nordwesten,...
Weather
der Regen, der Schnee, der Hagel, der , der Donner, der Hurrikan, der Wind, der Sonnenschein,
(Ausnahmen: das Eis, die Hitze, die Kälte, die Wolke)
alcoholic beverages
der Wein, der Schnaps, der Likör, der Gin, der Sekt, der Champagner, der Whisky, der Cocktail, ...
(exception: das Bier)
Brands of cars
der BMW, der Mercedes, der Fiat, der Renault, ...
The following nouns are always feminine
Substantivierte Zahlen
die Eins, die Acht, die Zwanzig
Motorradmarken
die Suzuki, die Kawasaki, die Harley Davidson
Schiffsnamen
die Gorch Fock, die Titanic
Flugzeuge
die Boing, die Concorde
The following nouns are always neuter
Farbnamen
das Blau, das Rot, das Grün, das Schwarz, ...
Substantivierte Verben
das Essen, das Reisen, das Lesen, das Einkaufen, ...
Which endings show the grammatical gender?
With some nouns you can recognize the gender by the endings (suffixes).
The following endings show that a noun is masculine
-er: der Fernseher, der Fehler, ... (But: die Butter, das Fenster, das Fieber)
-ich, -ig: der Pfirsich, der Teppich, der Käfig, ...
-ismus: der Alkoholismus, der Atheismus, der Faschismus, der Journalismus, der Rassismus, der Tourismus, ....
-ling: der Frühling, der Schmetterling, der Lehrling, ...
-or bei Personen und Gegenständen:
der Monitor, der Motor, der Traktor, .... (but: das Labor)
The following endings show that a noun is feminine
-ade: die Limonade, die Parade, die Schokolade,
-age: die Gage, die Garage, die Passage, ...
-anz: die Arroganz, die Bilanz, die Distanz, die Toleranz, ...
-ei: die Bäckerei, die Bücherei
-enz: die Existenz, die Intelligenz, die Inzidenz, die Konferenz, die Tendenz ...
-heit, -keit die Freiheit, die Krankheit, die die Möglichkeit, ...
-ie: die Demokratie, die Energie, die Linie, die Ökonomie, die Prämie, die Studie, ...
-ik: die Fabrik, die Klinik, die Musik, die Politik, die Statistik, die Technik, ...
-ion: die Aktion, die Diskussion, die Information, die Nation, die Position, ...
-ität: die Aktivität, die Realität, die Objektivität, die Stabilität, ...
-schaft: die Freundschaft, die Gesellschaft, die Mannschaft, die Partnerschaft, ...
-ung :die Bewegung, die Entfernung, die Erziehung, die Hoffnung, die Zeitung, ...
-ur: die Agentur, die Diktatur, die Natur, die Tastatur, die Zensur, ...
The following endings show that a noun is neuter
-chen, lein (Diminuitive): das Häuschen, das Tierchen, das Kindlein, das Tischlein, ...
-ment: das Argument, das Dokument, das Element, das Instrument, das Medikament, das Parlament, das Statement, ...
-um, -tum: das Museum, das Publikum, das Eigentum, das Ultimatum (But: der Irrtum, der Reichtum)
-nis: das -Ereignis, das Erlebnis, das Wagnis, ...
nouns with Ge + Verb are almost always neuter:
rennen - das Gerenne, fragen - das Gefrage, schenken - das Geschenk , ...
Compound nouns
Nouns can be composed of two or more words. The last element is then a noun and determines the gender:
die Stadt - die Altstadt, der Tisch - der Esstisch, das Buch - das Kinderbuch
Infinitives as nouns
Infinitivs can be used as nouns. Then they are neutral.
tanzen: Ich liebe das Tanzen!
schreiben: Auch das Schreiben muss man lernen.
Particularities: Nouns with more than one article
There are some nouns that can have different meanings and then also different articles:
der Band - a book can have several parts, i.e. several volumes: 'mehrere Bände'.
die Band - bands make music, e.g. the big band. The word is pronounced in English.
das Band - girls have ribbons in their hair - das Haarband.
der Leiter- is, for example, a department head, i.e. a manager (plural: unchanged - die Leiter)
die Leiter - die Leitern (ladders) are needed to climb a tree.
Substantiated infinitives (always neuter) can also look like another noun:
der Rasen - the lawn (no plural).
das Rasen - speeding
der - die - das .... how do the gender rules help me?
Depending on estimates, up to 80% of German vocabulary consists of nouns .
Therefore, almost all sentences contain an article, a word that works like an article (dieser, jeder, ...), a possessive pronoun (mein, dein, ...), a pronoun, or an adjective that refers to a noun and is adjusted in case, number and gender ( adjective declension ).
The gender divides the nouns into three groups. This helps you to give texts a structure.
The rules (above) can help you figure out the gender if you're not sure:
There are patterns that can be applied automatically:
For compound nouns, you only need to know the gender of the last element - then you know the gender of all compound nouns that have that last element.
You can almost always mark an alcoholic drink with the words "One (red wine/ gin/ Aperol Spritz / Hugo /) ... please!" order - only the beer is an exception: "One beer please!"
The CharLingua tip:
All important endings are contained in these three quasi-words:
der Iglingorismus
die Heitungkeiteischaftion
das Tumchenmamentum
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