A1 · Nouns: gender, plural, compounds
The three genders
der, die, das
Not a property of the thing — a property of the word.
At a glance
- Remember
- The ending decides the gender, not the meaning.
- Form
- der Tisch, der Mann, der Motormasculine
- Signal words
- -ung
- -heit
- -keit
- -schaft
- -chen
- -lein
- -er
- -in
- -tion
- Trap
- Wrong:Die Mädchen ist nett.Right:Das Mädchen ist nett.
Your turn
5 exercises on this topic. Your answers are checked in the browser; none of them leaves your device.
Now write it yourself3 sentences on this topic, typed and checked instantly.
The form
The patterns at a glance
Each row first says when or what the pattern is used for, then gives an example in German.
| masculine | der Tisch, der Mann, der Motor |
| feminine | die Lampe, die Frau, die Zeitung |
| neuter | das Fenster, das Kind, das Mädchen |
| plural, all genders | die Tische, die Lampen, die Fenster |
| learn the article with the word | der Tisch, nicht Tisch |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
Nouns ending in the suffixes -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -tion, -ei, -ie are feminine (das Ei and das Genie do not count: there the letters are not a suffix).
die Zeitung, die Freiheit, die Freundschaftthe newspaper, freedom, friendship
Nouns ending in -chen or -lein are neuter, whatever they mean.
das Mädchen, das Brötchenthe girl, the bread roll
Nouns ending in -er, -ler, -ner for a person doing something are masculine; the -in form is feminine.
der Lehrer, die Lehrerinthe teacher (m), the teacher (f)
An infinitive used as a noun is neuter, and is written with a capital letter.
Das Rauchen ist hier verboten.Smoking is forbidden here.
Example sentences
Der Schlüssel liegt auf dem Tisch.The key is on the table.
Die Wohnung hat drei Zimmer.The flat has three rooms.
Das Mädchen heißt Anna.The girl is called Anna.
Die Möglichkeit besteht.The possibility exists.
Das Lesen fällt ihm schwer.He finds reading difficult.
8 more example sentences
Der Bahnhof ist geschlossen.The station is closed.
Die Rechnung kommt später.The bill comes later.
Das Fenster steht offen.The window is open.
Die Entscheidung war richtig.The decision was right.
Der Kühlschrank ist leer.The fridge is empty.
Das Wasser ist zu kalt.The water is too cold.
Die Ärztin hat angerufen.The doctor called.
Der Montag ist mein freier Tag.Monday is my day off.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The meaning pulls one way and the ending pulls the other, and in German the ending wins. -chen makes a noun neuter and nothing overrides it — the same is true of das Fräulein and any diminutive you build yourself. If you find yourself choosing a gender because of what the word means, check the ending first.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
Every German noun is masculine, feminine or neuter, and the gender shows in the article: der Tisch, die Lampe, das Fenster. A table is not male and a lamp is not female. Grammatical gender is a class the word belongs to, and it lines up with sex only for people and some animals.
The famous demonstration is das Mädchen — "the girl", neuter. It is neuter because it ends in -chen, and every noun ending in -chen is neuter. The ending won against the meaning, which tells you exactly where gender lives: in the form of the word, not in the thing.
So gender has to be learned with each noun. But it is not random: endings predict it reliably, and a few dozen rules cover most of the vocabulary you will meet in the first two years. Learn the rules for the endings and memorise the rest as part of the word.
A closer look
How much of the gender system is actually predictable
More than the reputation suggests. Endings settle a large share of German nouns outright, and beyond the endings there are groups: days, months and seasons are masculine; so are makes of car and most weather. Most trees and flowers and most rivers inside Germany are feminine. Most metals, colours used as nouns and collectives with Ge- are neuter.
What is left is a genuinely arbitrary core of common short nouns — Tisch, Stuhl, Buch, Haus, Tür — and those you learn one at a time, which is what the article in front of every word list on this site is for. It is a smaller job than "learn the gender of every noun" makes it sound, but it is not no job, and no rule will remove it.
Exceptions and special cases2
Exception
When the noun is a person and has a natural sex
then gender usually follows the sex — der Mann, die Frau, der Vater, die Mutter.
Der Vater und die Mutter warten draußen.The father and the mother are waiting outside.
Why? For people the two systems agree, which is why learners expect them to agree everywhere else.
Exception
When the same word exists with two genders
then the two are different words with different meanings.
der See – die See, der Band – das Bandthe lake – the sea, the volume – the ribbon
Why? Gender is part of the word, so changing it makes another word: der See is a lake and die See is the sea.
Worth knowing2
Worth knowing
The -in ending makes a feminine from a masculine
Add -in to a masculine noun for a person and you get the feminine: Lehrer becomes Lehrerin, Arzt becomes Ärztin with an umlaut. This is productive — you can do it to a job title you have just met — and the plural is always -innen.
Sie ist Ingenieurin, er ist Ingenieur.She is an engineer, he is an engineer.
Worth knowing
A compound takes the gender of its last part
However long the word, the gender comes from the final noun. Die Tür plus der Griff is der Türgriff. This one rule makes the gender of most long German nouns free, which is a larger saving than it first appears, because most long German nouns are compounds.
die Hand + der Schuh = der Handschuhhand + shoe = the glove
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The verbs on this page, in every form: sein · haben · liegen · bestehen · warten