Why is das Mädchen neuter? German gender surprises explained

Das Mädchen is neuter because of its ending, not because of the girl. Mädchen ends in -chen, the German ending that makes things small, and every noun with this small ending is neuter, whatever it describes. The word grew out of an old diminutive of die Magd, a maid or young woman, so it once meant something like "little maid". In German grammar the ending decides the gender, so das Mädchen is neuter, just like das Brötchen and das Kätzchen.

#Where does the word Mädchen come from?

Centuries ago, die Magd meant a young woman or a female servant. Add the small ending -chen and you get an older form like Mägdchen, "little maid". Over time the middle sounds wore away, and Mägdchen became Mädchen. The meaning shifted from "little maid" to simply "girl", but the ending stayed, and with it the neuter gender.

Das Fräulein works the same way: die Frau plus the other small ending, -lein. It once meant a young or unmarried woman and was used as a title. Today that use is outdated, and an adult woman is Frau Becker, whether she is married or not.

In the plural, as with every noun, the article is die. The neuter only shows in the singular.

#Does -chen make every noun neuter?

Yes, without exception, as long as -chen is the small ending (der Kuchen and der Knochen only happen to end in those letters). That is what makes it such a useful rule. The small ending overrides the gender of the original word, and it often adds an umlaut:

Some of these words live on their own today and no longer feel small at all. Das Brötchen is simply a bread roll, das Würstchen is a sausage, and das Kaninchen (rabbit) and das Eichhörnchen (squirrel) are always said with -chen in everyday German.

The same is true of the other small endings. Das Büchlein is neuter because of -lein. In the south you will hear regional small endings too, such as -le in Swabia, -li in Switzerland and -erl in Bavaria and Austria. Das Müsli comes from Swiss German, and its -li is one of those endings. They all make neuter nouns. For the full list of endings that give the gender away, see German noun endings that tell you the gender.

#Do you say es or sie for das Mädchen?

Grammar says es, because the pronoun follows the gender of the noun. In practice, Germans use both, and the choice depends on distance:

• Right after the noun, es is the normal choice in careful German.
• Further on, especially once you know the girl's name, most people switch to sie.

The same choice comes up with possessives. In careful writing you will see Das Mädchen hat seine Jacke vergessen, with seine. In conversation many speakers say ihre, especially when the girl has been talked about for a while. If you write, use seine; if you speak, both will be understood. There is more on sein and ihr in German possessive articles.

#Which other German nouns have a surprising gender?

Mädchen is the famous one, but it has company. Some words for people ignore the person's sex completely:

• das Kind and das Baby: neuter for every child.
• das Mitglied: a member, male or female.
• die Person: feminine, even for a man.
• der Gast and der Mensch: masculine, even for a woman.

Other words surprise learners who know French, Spanish or Italian. In German die Sonne is feminine and der Mond is masculine, the other way round. And some surprises sit on the dinner table: der Löffel, die Gabel and das Messer have three different genders. Die Mannschaft (a team) is feminine although it contains Mann, because -schaft is always feminine. Once again the ending wins.

The American writer Mark Twain joked about all this in his essay "The Awful German Language", complaining that in German a girl has no sex while a turnip (die Rübe) is feminine. The joke still works, but now you know the explanation.

#Is grammatical gender about meaning at all?

Only a little. Gender is a feature of the word, inherited from much older stages of the language, and German shares it with many related languages. For most things it is not about meaning at all: nothing about a table makes it masculine.

For people, gender and sex usually do match: der Vater, die Mutter, der Onkel, die Tante, der Lehrer and die Lehrerin. The exceptions almost all have a clear reason, like a small ending (-chen, -lein) or a general word for "a person" or "a member". That is good news for you as a learner. Instead of a mystery, das Mädchen is one more example of the most reliable rule in German gender: the ending decides. The der, die, das rules collect the other patterns that work the same way.

#How does Linota help with surprising genders?

Words like Mädchen stick best when you meet them in real sentences. In Linota you can tap any noun in a text, from the short daily reading to the news, and see its article in the sentence you found it in. Save it with one more tap, and its study note keeps the article and plural with it. The quick quiz and Endungs-Poker then ask you for der, die or das from your own words, so the surprises become routine.

#The short version

• Mädchen ends in -chen, and every noun with the small ending -chen is neuter.
• The ending decides the gender, not the person or the thing.
• Grammar says es for das Mädchen; in speech, sie is common and fine.
• Das Kind, das Mitglied, die Person and der Gast ignore the person's sex too.
• For people, gender usually matches; the exceptions have a reason.

If you like these puzzles, read on with German nouns with two genders, where one word can change its meaning with its article.