B1 · Nouns: gender, plural, compounds
The joints inside a compound
Arbeitszeit, Sonnenschein, Hundehütte
The -s and -n that appear between the two halves of a compound, and what they are not.
German compounds are written as one word, and the two halves are often joined by a linking element: Arbeit + Zeit → Arbeitszeit, Sonne + Schein → Sonnenschein, Hund + Hütte → Hundehütte. The commonest linkers are -s-, -n-, -en- and -e-.
The -s- is not a genitive and not a plural, however much it looks like one. Arbeitszeit is not "the time of the work" — it is one word meaning working hours, and the s is there for the sound. That matters because it appears after feminine nouns, which have no genitive -s at all.
There is no rule that predicts every case, and native speakers get the rare ones wrong too. Two useful tendencies: a first half ending in -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -ion, -tät almost always takes -s- (Zeitungsartikel, Sicherheitsgurt), and a first half that forms its plural in -n usually takes -n- (Straßenbahn, Blumenladen).
Die Form
| -s- | Arbeitszeit, Zeitungsartikel |
| -n- / -en- | Sonnenschein, Straßenbahn |
| -e- | Hundehütte, Tageszeit |
| kein Fugenelement | Haustür, Bahnhof |
| Genus und Plural | vom letzten Wort |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
The last part decides the gender and the plural.
die Tür → die Haustürthe door → the front door
A first half in -ung, -heit, -keit or -schaft takes -s-.
die Zeitung → der Zeitungsartikelthe newspaper → the newspaper article
The linking -s is not a genitive and carries no meaning.
die Arbeitszeitworking hours
A compound is written as one word, however long.
die Krankenversicherungskartethe health insurance card
Genauer hingesehen
How to read a long compound
Read it from the back. The last noun is what the thing is; everything in front narrows it down. Krankenversicherungskarte is a Karte, a card — of a Versicherung, an insurance — for Kranken, the sick. Three steps, and the word is transparent.
That is also why gender comes from the last part: the compound is a kind of that thing. Der Bahnhof is masculine because der Hof is, and it does not matter that die Bahn is feminine. One rule, no exceptions, and it settles the article of a word you have never seen.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
a compound would be hard to read
a hyphen is allowed.
die Software-Entwicklungsoftware development
Official spelling permits one for clarity, especially with abbreviations and three or more parts.
-
the first part is an adjective or a verb stem
no linker appears.
das Schnellrestaurant, der Schreibtischthe fast-food place, the desk
Only nouns take the linking elements.
Woran man es erkennt
- -s-
- -n-
- -en-
- -e-
- Zusammensetzung
Beispielsätze
Meine Arbeitszeit endet um fünf.My working day ends at five.
Die Straßenbahn fährt alle zehn Minuten.The tram runs every ten minutes.
Er liest den Zeitungsartikel.He is reading the newspaper article.
Der Bahnhof ist gleich um die Ecke.The station is just round the corner.
Wir brauchen eine Geburtsurkunde.We need a birth certificate.
Noch 6 Beispielsätze
der Geburtstagthe birthday
die Sonnenbrillethe sunglasses
das Kinderzimmerthe children’s room
die Lebensmittelthe groceries
der Hauptbahnhofthe main station
die Führerscheinprüfungthe driving test
Besonderheiten (2)
-
The long words are not showing off
German compounds get long because the language writes as one word what English writes as several. <z>Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung</z> is a speed limit, not a joke; the English is the same length once the spaces are counted. Nothing about them is harder than the phrase they replace.
-
A compound can be built on the spot
German speakers coin new compounds freely and are understood without explanation: <z>Sonntagnachmittagsspaziergang</z> is not in any dictionary and is perfectly clear. That productivity is the reason a dictionary can never list them all, and the reason reading from the back is a skill worth having.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
Two mistakes with the same root: treating the linker as an English possessive. German never puts an apostrophe inside a compound, and it never leaves the two halves as separate words. The whole thing is one noun with one article and one plural, and splitting it changes it into a phrase that means something else or nothing at all.
One word, one article, and the last part decides.
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