Gender in German
In German, each noun has one of three genders:
masculine,
feminine, or
neuter. This idea of gender is found in many Indo-European languages and while some may have abandoned gender in the modern language, it remains a key part of modern German. The gender of the noun affects its corresponding
article’s declination as well as each noun’s
adjectival forms. Below, we see the effects of gender. The variations in the cases will be discussed in a different lesson.
Examples:
ein gutes Bier
a good beer (neuter)
ein guter Mann
a good man (masc.)
in dem Park
in the park (dative, masc.)
in der Galerie
in the gallery (dative, fem.)
Ich kaufe den Hut.
I’m buying the hat (accusative, masc.)
Ich kaufe die Zeitung.
I’m buying the newspaper (accusative, fem.)
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Determining a noun’s gender
With a little practice, it is possible to identify the gender of most German nouns. As with all languages, there are exceptions. Some nouns simply need to be memorized and thus it is advisable to learn each new noun along with its gender. Below are some tips to help with gender identification. By learning these triggers, memorizing genders will be less daunting.
A. Masculine nouns:
Most male people and animals will be masculine in German. Additionally, almost any noun with the ending
-er (Lehrer, Meister). Other suffixes that are often masculine are:
-us (Alkoholismus, Expressionismus),
-ig (König), and
-en (Garten, Ofen).
B. Feminine nouns:
Many female people are feminine nouns in German
(Frau, Autorin, Lehrerin). Feminine nouns also often end in
-e (Treppe, Katze, Pfeife). The following suffixes almost always guarantee that a noun is feminine:
-ung (Übung, Versicherung),
-eit (Brüderlichkeit, Freiheit, Einheit),
-ion (Situation, Intuition, Religion), and
-ei (Hexerei, Bäckerei).
C. Neuter Nouns:
Only about 15% of German nouns are neuter. For this reason, it can be easy to simply memorize them when you come across them. Words for human and animal babies are almost always neuter:
(Kind, Baby, Lamm), and all
diminutives are neuter as well:
(Mädchen, Hündchen). Certain nouns, called collectives, are neuter in German and are easily identified due to their
ge- prefix:
(Gemälde, Gebäude, Gedanke). Lastly, all verbs that are used as nouns are always neuter:
das Lesen, das Sprechen, etc.
A note on plurals
In German when a noun is plural, it essentially abandons its gender and then is treated as a plural in terms of articles, declinations, and adjectives. The various suffixes used to pluralize nouns are discussed in a different lesson.
A note on exceptions
Be aware that none of these tips for identifying gender are concrete rules. Languages evolve and depending on how words come into the language, they do not always follow common trends. Some examples of exceptions are:
Papagei (masculine),
Leiter (feminine), and Name (masculine).
