How to Know The German Article
Since there are three different articles in German it might be hard to remember every nounās gender by heart. So today weāll look at a few indicators that can reveal it before you even know what the word itself means.
A good thing to know is that the majority of German nouns only have one article. Though some things, like different workers, have either āderā or ādieā depending on the personās pronouns.
Ex. Der KĆ¼nstler ā the artist (masculine)
Die KĆ¼nstlerin ā the artist (feminine)
Der Arzt ā the doctor (masculine)
Die Ćrztin ā the doctor (feminine)
And in some cases a noun has more than one gender because it is a loan word and was never granted a specific gender. Like for example: der Laptop, das Laptop. Both āderā and ādasā are valid to use when talking about a laptop.
But like I said; this is only for some nouns, a minority. The majority have only one of the three articles. And in fact, 46% of those are feminine. You heard me right. 34% of them are masculine, and only 20% use the neutral article.
This means that if youāre unsure, take a chance at either feminine or masculine. But letās look at the actual rules for finding out the gender.
(Be aware that there are always exceptions, but it is better to assume the rules apply to a word than to feel hesitant. You will learn theĀ exceptions as you go along.)
How to recognize feminine
If the noun has any of these endings it is, the very majority of the time, feminine:
-ei
-anz
-enz
-heit
-keit
-ie
-ik
-ion
-itƤt
-schaft
-ung
-ur
How to recognize masculine
If the noun has any of these endings it is, the very majority of the time, masculine:Ā
-ant
-ent
-ich
-ling
-er (not always masculine)
-ismusĀ
-ist
-or
Weekdays, months, most alcoholic beverages, weather elements, and directions (north, south, east, west) are all also masculine.
If the noun has any of these endings it is, the very majority of the time, neuter:Ā
-lein and -chen (both diminutive)
-ment
-um
-ma (not always neuter)
Verbs who are made into nouns and most metals are also neuter, ex. das Leben, das Schwimmen, and, das Silber, das Geld.
As well as most nouns beginning with āGe-ā, ex. das GebƤude, are neuter.Ā
