Geschlecht der Substantive

learning target

Aim of this section is to learn which noun has got which gender.

noun	gender
der Mann die Frau das Kind	male female neuter

rules

There are 3 different genders in German:

männlich (male)
weiblich (female)
sächlich (neuter)

Each gender is indicated by an article:

der for male nouns
die for female nouns
das for neuter nouns

Which noun has which gender?

The rule is:
There is no rule or only rules with many exceptions.

I want to give some examples to show that there is no logic about the gender in German. Let's have a look at the three words: man, woman and girl.

der Mann (man)-> obviously male
die Frau (woman)-> obviously female
das Mädchen (girl)-> obviously female, but the grammatical gender in German is neuter!

That means the grammatical gender in German often has nothing to do with the biological gender.

A second example is the word ocean in German. We've got three different words to describe it:

der Ozean -> male
die See -> female
das Meer-> neuter

That's why we always learn the article together with the noun. See the article as part of the noun and not as an extra word.
Nevertheless, I'd like to give you some rules which might help to remember which is the correct gender.

DER - male nouns

1. all days, months and seasons are male

der Montag (Monday)
der Mai (May)
der Winter (winter)

2. occupations and nationalities when you referring to a male person are male

der Arzt (male doctor)
der Student (male student)
der Deutsche (male German)

3. names of cars and trains are male

der ICE (fastest train in Germany)
der Mercedes (famous German car)
der VW (famous German car)

4. male people are usually grammatically male

der Mann (man)
der Junge (boy)
der Bruder (brother)

5. most mountains and lakes are male

der Bodensee (famous German lake)
der Mount Everest (famous mountain between Nepal and China)
der Kilimandscharo (famous mountain in Africa)

6. most nouns ending with -ich, -ig, -ling are male

der Honig (honey)
der Teppich (carpet)
der Schädling (pest)

7. most nouns ending with -el,-en, -er are male

der Wagen (car)
der Löffel (spoon)
der Becher (mug)

DIE - female nouns

1. all nouns ending with -heit, -keit, -schaft, -tät, -ung are female

die Freundschaft (friendship)
die Freiheit (freedom)
die Wohnung (apartment)

2. all nouns ending with -ik, -ade, -age, -enz, -ette, -ine, -ion, -ur are female

die Musik (music)
die Waage (scale)
die Nation (nation)

3. all cardinal numbers are female

die Eins (one)
die Zwei (two)
die Drei (three)

4. female people are usually grammatically female

die Frau (woman)
die Dame (lady)
die Tochter (daughter)

5. most flowers and trees are female

die Rose (rose)
die Orchidee (ordhid)
die Palme (palm)

6. most nouns ending with -ei, -ie, -ive, itis, isse are female

die Polizei (police)
die Linie (line)
die Initiative (initiative)

7. most nouns ending with -e are female

die Ecke (corner)
die Grenze (border)
die Decke (ceiling)

DAS - neuter nouns

1. all nouns ending with -lein, -chen are neuter

das Fräulein (miss)
das Mädchen (girl)
das Kätzchen (kitten)

2. all names of hotels, cafés and theaters are neuter

das Hilton (Hilton)
das Gewandhaus (famous German theater)
das Altwerk (pizza restaurant in Nideggen)

3. all colors are neuter

das Blau (blue)
das Rot (red)
das Gelb (yellow)

4. all gerunds (verbs which become nouns) are neuter

das Lesen (reading)
das Schreiben (writing)
das Sehen (seeing)

5. many cities and countries are neuter

das Deutschland (Germany)
das Italien (Italy)
das Köln (Cologne)

6. most nouns ending with -tum, -ment, -um, -ium, -nis are neuter

das Museum (museum)
das Datum (date)
das Verhältnis (relationship)

7. most nouns starting with "Ge" and ending with "e" are neuter

das Gebäude (building)
das Gefüge (structure)
das Gerede (gossip)

exercises

	gender excercise				Lösung

summary - documents for your folder

	Geschlecht der Substantive (theory, 4 pages)