Exceptions
Many nouns have standard endings which indicate their gender. There are, of course, a number of unusual exceptions, which have to be learnt.
- der Rock – the skirt - is masculine, although skirts are generally associated with females
- die Hose – the trousers - this noun is feminine and singular, although men also wear trousers
- das Mädchen – the girl - is a neuter noun, although a girl is female
Weak nouns
Although most nouns ending in -e are feminine, eg (die Jacke, die Stadtmitte, die Schere), there are some common masculine nouns which end in -e.
They are referred to as weak nouns. These nouns refer to male people, animals and nationalities.
| German | English |
| der Junge | boy |
| der Name | name |
| der Löwe | lion |
| der Kunde | customer |
| der Neffe | nephew |
| der Deutsche | German man |
| der Kollege | colleague |
| der Brite | the British man |
| German | der Junge |
|---|---|
| English | boy |
| German | der Name |
|---|---|
| English | name |
| German | der Löwe |
|---|---|
| English | lion |
| German | der Kunde |
|---|---|
| English | customer |
| German | der Neffe |
|---|---|
| English | nephew |
| German | der Deutsche |
|---|---|
| English | German man |
| German | der Kollege |
|---|---|
| English | colleague |
| German | der Brite |
|---|---|
| English | the British man |
Multiple gender
Some nouns have more than one gender which can change the meaning of a word, eg when der See is masculine, it means 'lake', but when the feminine form die See is used, it means 'sea'.
Here are some other examples:
- der Band – volume, book
- das Band – ribbon
- die Band – band, pop group
- das Golf – golf (the game)
- der Golf – gulf (as in the Gulf of Mexico)
- der Leiter – the leader
- die Leiter – the ladder
Sometimes the gender of a word is different depending on where you come from, eg:
| Germany | Austria | Switzerland |
| die Butter | der Butter | die Butter |
| der Jogurt | das Jogurt/die Jogurt | das Jogurt/die Jogurt |
| das Radio | der Radio | das Radio |
| das Taxi | der Taxi | der Taxi |
| der Teller | das Teller | der Teller |
| Germany | die Butter |
|---|---|
| Austria | der Butter |
| Switzerland | die Butter |
| Germany | der Jogurt |
|---|---|
| Austria | das Jogurt/die Jogurt |
| Switzerland | das Jogurt/die Jogurt |
| Germany | das Radio |
|---|---|
| Austria | der Radio |
| Switzerland | das Radio |
| Germany | das Taxi |
|---|---|
| Austria | der Taxi |
| Switzerland | der Taxi |
| Germany | der Teller |
|---|---|
| Austria | das Teller |
| Switzerland | der Teller |
You should learn the Hochdeutsch forms that can be found in dictionaries.
Did you know?
In English, the plural forms 'colleagues' or 'students' can refer to both male and female counterparts.
Because there isn't one specific plural for both male and female in German, it's commonplace to use both the masculine and feminine forms of address together, eg Kolleginnen und Kollegen (female colleagues and male colleagues), Studentinnen und Studenten (female students and male students).
When advertising jobs or addressing a letter to a non-specific person, Germans need to address both the male and female forms, eg by writing Professor/in or ProfessorIn, Informatiker/in or InformatikerIn, Student/in or StudentIn. In English, we would write 'Sir or Madam'.
In 2013, the University of Leipzig took the controversial step of abandoning this German grammar rule when addressing men and women together. Now, they no longer write /in or -In, and use only the feminine forms to apply to both men and women. So, instead of addressing a male professor as Professor and a female professor as Professorin in the university charter, the female form Professorin is now used for both males and females. Could Germany end up as a gender-neutral language?
