A2 · Nouns: gender, plural, compounds
Compound nouns
words built out of words
Read the last part to know what it is, the parts before it to know which one.
German writes compounds as one word, with no hyphen and no space: Handschuh, Fahrkartenautomat, Krankenversicherung. English builds the same compounds and simply leaves gaps between the parts, so the difficulty is not the idea, it is the reading.
The rule for reading is short: the last part says what the thing is, and everything before it narrows it down. A Handschuh is a Schuh — a covering — for the Hand. A Schuhhandel is a Handel, a trade, in shoes. The same two words in the other order are two different things, exactly as in English.
The last part also gives the gender and the plural, which is why a long compound is almost never work: if you know der Automat, you know der Fahrkartenautomat and die Fahrkartenautomaten without being told.
Die Form
| noun + noun | die Hand + der Schuh = der Handschuh |
| with a linking -s | die Arbeit + der Tag = der Arbeitstag |
| with a linking -n | die Straße + die Bahn = die Straßenbahn |
| verb stem + noun | fahren + die Karte = die Fahrkarte |
| adjective + noun | hoch + das Haus = das Hochhaus |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
The last part decides the gender and the plural.
das Haus -> das Krankenhaus, die Krankenhäuserthe house -> the hospital, the hospitals
The parts before it narrow the meaning, and are read from the right.
der Autoschlüsselthe car key
Many compounds take a linking -s or -n between the parts; it carries no meaning.
die Geburtstagsfeierthe birthday party
Compounds are written as one word — never with a space, and with a hyphen only for clarity or for abbreviations.
die E-Mail-Adressethe email address
Genauer hingesehen
The long words are not a joke at the language
The famous monsters — Donaudampfschifffahrts­gesellschaft and its relatives — are real German, built by exactly the rule above, and they are read the same way: find the last part, then work leftwards. They look impossible only because English would have written them with six spaces and nobody would have noticed.
Where German genuinely differs is in how readily it coins one. A German speaker will build a compound on the spot for something that has no name, and it will be understood without explanation. That is worth knowing the moment you start writing: a compound you invent is usually right, where an invented English phrase would need a definition.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
the compound is very long or its parts would be misread
a hyphen is allowed to help the reader.
die Software-Aktualisierungthe software update
Legibility outranks the rule, and the spelling reform says so explicitly.
-
one part is a proper name, a letter or an abbreviation
a hyphen is required.
der Berlin-Besuch, die T-Shirt-Größethe visit to Berlin, the T-shirt size
Running a capitalised name into a common noun would hide the name.
Woran man es erkennt
- -s-
- -n-
- Haus
- Zeit
- Karte
- Zimmer
Beispielsätze
Der Autoschlüssel liegt in der Küche.The car key is in the kitchen.
Sie arbeitet im Krankenhaus.She works at the hospital.
Der Fahrkartenautomat ist kaputt.The ticket machine is broken.
Wir nehmen die Straßenbahn.We are taking the tram.
Meine E-Mail-Adresse hat sich geändert.My email address has changed.
Noch 8 Beispielsätze
Der Bahnhofsvorplatz wird umgebaut.The station forecourt is being rebuilt.
Hast du die Hausaufgaben gemacht?Have you done your homework?
Die Waschmaschine läuft noch.The washing machine is still running.
Er hat einen Termin beim Zahnarzt.He has an appointment at the dentist.
Das Wohnzimmer ist zu klein.The living room is too small.
Die Krankenversicherung zahlt das nicht.The health insurance does not pay for that.
Wo ist die Bushaltestelle?Where is the bus stop?
Sie sucht eine Ferienwohnung.She is looking for a holiday flat.
Besonderheiten (2)
-
The linking letter has no meaning and no rule
Some compounds take an <z>-s-</z> between the parts (<z>Arbeitstag</z>), some an <z>-n-</z> (<z>Straßenbahn</z>), some nothing (<z>Handschuh</z>). It is not a genitive and it carries no sense — it is a joint, and which joint a word uses is part of the word. Nouns ending in <z>-ung</z>, <z>-heit</z>, <z>-keit</z>, <z>-schaft</z> or <z>-tät</z> take <z>-s-</z> reliably, which covers a good share of the cases.
die Gesundheitskarte, die Universitätsbibliothekthe health card, the university library
-
A compound can be taken apart to be understood
This is the practical payoff and it is worth practising deliberately: meet an unknown long noun, find the last part, and you already know what kind of thing it is and what article it takes. <z>Mietvertragsverlängerung</z> is a <z>Verlängerung</z> — an extension — of a <z>Mietvertrag</z>, a tenancy agreement. No dictionary needed.
die Mietvertragsverlängerungthe extension of the tenancy agreement
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
English writes many compounds with a space and German writes none with one, so the space comes across from English by itself. Two nouns side by side with a gap between them are two separate nouns in German, and a reader will try to parse them as such. If the two words name one thing, they are one word.
One thing, one word. The last part is the thing.
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