Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Mar 9, 2015 14:39:47 GMT 5.5
The gender of German nouns are very confusing to foreign learners. You cannot always determine the gender of German nouns by knowing their meaning. In other words, in German, the gender of nouns very rarely relates to the sex of the person or thing it relates to. For example, Mann (man) is masculine, Mädchen (girl) and Fräulein (miss) are neuter, and Person (person) feminine in German. [For those who are not new to German: German nouns are written always with an initial upper case.] So it is always good to learn German nouns along with their articles (which always indicate gender). Der, die and das are German articles for masculine, feminine and neuter nouns, respectively. All plural nouns, irrespective of their gender, take die as their definite article. (Here we are talking about nominative nouns and the definite article only). All good German dictionaries indicate the gender of the nouns.
Despite this difficulty, there is a way to identify the gender of most common German nouns without even knowing their meanings. Nouns ending in
To use Michael Schmitz's technique, you can put it this way to make it easier to remember
To use Michael Schmitz's technique, you can memorize the most German neuter and feminine nouns by practicing their endings this way:
Despite this difficulty, there is a way to identify the gender of most common German nouns without even knowing their meanings. Nouns ending in
-igare usually masculine and thus they take the article der.
-ling
-or
-ismus
-er
To use Michael Schmitz's technique, you can put it this way to make it easier to remember
der ig-ling-or-ismus-eror in short
der iglingorismuserOn the other hand, nouns ending in
-tumare usually neuter, while the nouns ending in
-chen
-ment
-um
-lein
-nis
-heitare usually feminine.
-ung
-keit
-ei
-ion
-tät
-ik
-ur
-ie
-e
To use Michael Schmitz's technique, you can memorize the most German neuter and feminine nouns by practicing their endings this way:
das tum-chen-ma-ment-um-lein-nisSo, you can now tell the gender of the following German nouns and what articles they take:
die heit-ung-keit-ei-schaft-ion-tät-ik-ur-e
Abteilung (department)Yes, there are of course exceptions to these "rules," if they are. These exceptions will be covered in time.
Autor (author)
Boden (floor)
Bürschchen (stripling/laddie)
Courage (courage)
Eimer (bucket)
Ewigkeit (eternity)
Fabrik (plant)
Feigling (coward)
Frühling (spring)
Gesellschaft (society)
Information (information)
Kommunismus (communism)
Körper (body)
Köter (scoundrel)
Literatur (literature)
Logik (logic)
Management (management)
Meister (master)
Minute (minute)
Mongolei (Mongolia)
Museum (museum)
Musik (music)
Nase (nose)
Nation (nation)
Natur (nature)
Oktober (October)
Polizei (police)
Psychologie (psychology)
Quentchen (grain)
Schmetterling (butterfly)
September (September)
Struktur (structure)
Wachstum (growth)
Wohnung (flat)