Gender in German
The first thing you must learn and understand about the German language is that all German nouns have a gender. These are:
- masculine (male) words
- feminine (female) words
- or neuter (neuter) words
Having a gender does not mean that nouns actually refer to male, female or neuter things, although, in most circumstances, the nouns that refer to males (such as a male doctor or a male animal) are masculine, while nouns that refer to females are generally feminine (such as a female doctor or female animal).
Resources for further reading:
Here are some tips for you to help you get your head around it. Remember what nouns are? Nouns are words used to name or identify a person, animal, place, thing, or idea, for example: house, carpet, dream, cat. Just as in English, German nouns can either be singular, such as “cat” or Katze, or plural (i.e., more than one), like “cats” or Katzen.
Let's check out this free lesson on gender in German....
Here are some of the most basic German nouns to get you started. Further on in this lesson we will look at the pronunciation of these and more German nouns.
- die Flasche - Bottle
- der Rotwein - Red wine
- die Rotweinflasche - the bottle of red wine
- die Pizza - Pizza
- der Belag - Topping
- der Pizzabelag - the pizza topping
- die Dose - Can
- der Öffner - Opener
- der Dosenöffner - the can opener
How to pronounce the gender in German
Is there a clue?
The days of the week, months and seasons are all masculine.
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(der) Montag
Monday
(der) August
August
der Sommer
the summer
der Winter
the winter
Most nouns ending with – e are feminine, for example “die Blume” the flower. There are some more endings that give you a clue to what gender the noun has. However there are some exceptions, so take it as a rule of thumb.
For example:
Masculine
-ast
der Gast
the guest
-mus
der Realismus
the realism
-er
der Computer
the computer
-ig
der Essig
the vinegar
-ling
der Schmetterling
the butterfly
Feminine
-heit
die Schönheit
the beauty
-keit
die Freundlichkeit
the friendliness
-schaft
die Freundschaft
the friendship
-ung
die Heizung
the heater
-ei
die Sauerei
the mess
-in
die Freundin
the girlfriend
-ion
die Aktion
the action
-ie
die Garantie
the guarantee
Neuter
-lein
das Häuslein
the little house
-chen
das Mädchen
the girl
-nis
das Verhältnis
the proportion
-at
das Internat
the boarding school
-ment
das Parlament
the parliament
-um
das Museum
the museum
What about compound words?
You will come across some very long words in German. These words are called compound nouns and are made up of two or more words. The last noun always determines the gender of the compound noun.
For example:
Die Flasche
Bottle
der Rotwein
Red wine
die Rotweinflasche
the bottle of red wine
die Pizza
Pizza
der Belag
Topping
der Pizzabelag
the pizza topping
die Dose
Can
der Öffner
Opener
der Dosenöffner
the can opener
Here are a few recommended German lessons to try next!
- This lesson is all about the German accusative.
- The letters in the German alphabet are the same as in English! Find out all about it.
- Learn the correct way to use German articles here.
Bis bald!
Paul Weber: Rocket German
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