Der, die, das: how to know the gender of a German noun

German nouns have one of three genders, and the article shows which: der for masculine, die for feminine and das for neuter. There is no single rule that predicts the gender of every noun, but there are reliable patterns. The ending of a noun often gives the article away, whole groups of words share one gender, and compound nouns almost always take the gender of their last part. Learn these patterns, learn every new noun together with its article, and der, die, das stops being a guessing game.

#Why do German nouns have three genders?

Grammatical gender is a feature of the word, not of the thing. A table is not male, yet it is der Tisch. A girl is not neuter, yet she is das Mädchen. The genders are an old inheritance that German shares with many other languages, and they matter because the article and the endings around a noun change with them.

That is why it pays to know the gender: once you know it, the rest of the sentence falls into place, and the German cases build directly on it.

#Which endings tell you the gender of a noun?

Endings are the most useful clue you have. Some of them are close to perfect, so they are worth learning first.

The first and the third rows are the safest: nouns ending in -ung, -heit, -keit and -schaft are always feminine, and nouns ending in -chen or -lein are always neuter. That last rule explains one of the most famous surprises in German.

Mädchen ends in -chen, a small ending that once made "a little maid", and -chen always makes a noun neuter. We look at this and other surprises in why das Mädchen is neuter.

What about nouns ending in -e?

Most nouns that end in -e are feminine: die Lampe, die Straße, die Tasche, die Woche. This is a strong tendency rather than a rule. A group of masculine nouns for people and animals also ends in -e, such as der Junge, der Kollege and der Löwe, and a few common nouns are neuter, such as das Auge and das Ende. Still, if you meet a new noun in -e and have to guess, guess die.

#Which groups of words share one article?

Meaning helps as well as form. Several groups of nouns share a gender, and they are easy to remember because they hang together.

• Der: days, months and seasons (der Montag, der Mai, der Winter), the points of the compass (der Norden), weather words (der Regen, der Schnee) and most alcoholic drinks (der Wein, der Schnaps, though das Bier is the famous exception).
• Die: most trees and flowers (die Eiche, die Rose), numbers used as nouns (die Eins, die Sieben) and most motorbikes and ships.
• Das: verbs used as nouns (das Essen, das Schwimmen), colours as nouns (das Blau), most metals (das Gold, das Silber) and many words for young animals (das Kalb, das Ferkel, das Lamm).

#How do compound nouns get their article?

German builds long nouns by joining short ones, and the rule here almost never fails: the last word decides the article.

This makes long words much less frightening. You do not need to know Bahnhofsgaststätte, only that it ends in die Gaststätte. There is more on this in compound nouns and their articles.

#What is the article in the plural?

In the plural every noun takes die, whatever its gender in the singular.

The plural endings themselves vary, so learn them with the noun as well. German plurals shows the five patterns and how to guess them.

#What should you do with the nouns that follow no pattern?

Patterns cover a lot, but not everything. Der Löffel, die Gabel and das Messer sit on the same table with three different genders and no clue in sight. For words like these, the answer is habit, not rules:

1. Never learn a noun without its article. Write and say der Löffel, not Löffel.
2. Learn nouns in a sentence. Ich brauche einen Löffel reminds you of the gender through the ending of einen.
3. Give each gender a colour or an image. Many learners picture masculine nouns in blue, feminine in red and neuter in green, or place them in three rooms of an imaginary house.
4. Meet the word again and again. The article sticks when you see it in real sentences, not after one look at a list.

#How does Linota help with der, die, das?

In Linota, every noun you tap in a text shows its article and plural straight away, in the sentence you found it in. When you save it, the article comes with it, so you never store a bare noun. The quick quiz then asks for der, die or das from your own words, and Endungs-Poker turns articles and endings into a card game. Ten minutes a day with the words you actually meet does more for articles than any list.

#The short version

• Learn the safe endings first: -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft are die; -chen and -lein are das.
• Use the word groups: days, months and seasons are der; verbs used as nouns are das.
• In a compound noun, the last word decides.
• Every plural takes die.
• Learn every noun with its article, in a sentence, and meet it often.

For more ways to make articles stay, read how to remember German articles.