Today we are finishing the sequence of rules „How to identify German gender“ and get rid of the biggest problem that most students have, namely knowing when to use der, die and das.
While French, Portuguese, Italian or Spanish people use only two genders, Germans made it so complex that it seems to be a huge problem when students start learning the nouns and their declension. As you have noticed, the rules are simple and you can always make a good organisation in your head to simplify the learning process.
At the end of this lesson you will see how easy it is to identify genders and if you still have difficulties, you can repeat this week over and over till your brain works automatically. German kids manage it through their language development process, and I am more than sure, that you will manage it as well.
Like the masculine noun topics, there are many neuter noun categories.
Still, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, remember to 1) just take it all slowly and gradually and 2) cheer yourself with the truth that this way is still infinitely better when you were memorizing what seemed like purely random gender for each individual noun! Now you have a system!
| Groups | Examples |
|---|---|
| Gerunds | das Singen, das Lesen, das Laufen, … |
| Colors | das Blau, das Weiß, das Grün, … |
| Languages | das Englisch, das Deutsch, das Spanisch, das Portugiesisch, … |
| English -ing forms | das Meeting, das Training, das Brainstorming, … |
| Young person or baby animals | das Baby, das Kind, das Fohlen (foal), das Lamm (lamb), … |
| Hotels, cafes, restaurants, cinemas | das Hilton, das “Grand Rex”, das CineStart, das Borwin, … |
| Cities, provinces and countries | das London, das Berlin, das Frankfurt, das Hamburg, das Bayern, das Deutschland, das Frankreich, … Common exceptions: – der Iran, der Jemen, der Kongo, der Libanon, der Sudan – die Schweiz (Switzerland) and other provinces or countries, including those that end in -a, -e, -ei, and -ie (e.g. die Türkei) that are gendered feminine with the exception of Afrika and China |
| Continents | das Afrika, das Europa, das Nordamerika, … |
| Metals and chemical units | das Atom, das Elektron, das Volt, das Watt Common exceptions: Liter and Meter having varying gender. |
Let us have a look at the table below and learn the suffixes that help us to identify neuter gender in German.
| Suffixes | Examples |
|---|---|
| -chen (diminutive nouns) | das Mädchen (girl), das Märchen (fairytale), das Päckchen (small package), das Pfännchen (small frying pan), … Note: Nouns with the ending -chen, that are not diminutives, do not have to be neuter. Example: der Kuchen (cake), der Knochen (bone). |
| -lein | das Häuslein (the little house), das Büchlein (booklet), das Vöglein (little bird) |
| -ett | das Bett (the bed), das Büfett (the buffet), das Brett (the board), das Omelett (the omelet)… |
| -ment | das Medikament (the medication), das Element (the element), das Instrument (the instrument), das Testament (the will), … |
| -tum | das Datum (the date), das Wachstum (the growth), das Ultimatum (the ultimatum), das Votum (the vote), … |
| -eau | das Niveau (the level), das Plateau (the plateau), … |
| many nouns ending with -nis and -sal | das Bedürfnis (need), das Ereignis (event), das Schicksal (fate) Note The remaining number of nouns ending with -nis and -sal are feminine and many originate from adjectives or indicate states of mind: die Bitternis (bitterness), die Finsternis (darkness), die Besorgnis (anxiety), die Betrübnis (sadness). Other: die Erkenntnis (perception), die Erlaubnis (permission), die Kenntnis (knowledge, cognition, skills), die Mühsal (hardship) |
| -il | das Ventil (valve), das Profil (profile), das Textil (textile). |
| -ma (of Greek origin) | das Schema (the scheme), das Rheuma (the rheumatism), das Thema (the topic, theme), but those not originally Greek are usually not neuter: die Firma (the firm, company), der Puma (the puma). |
| -um | das Album (album), das Imperium (empire), das Parfum (perfume). |
| -ar | das Formular (the form), das Radar (the radar, der Radar is also correct), das Sonar (the sonar). Exception: der Altar (the altar). |
| -o | das Büro (the office), das Cello (the violoncello), das Klo (the toilet) |