The gender of nouns in German

• A noun is a naming word for a person, place or thing.
• A noun can be masculine, feminine,neuter or plural.
• The gender of a noun does not refer to biological gender. For example, A male cat would still be die Katze.
• The gender of a noun will usually be indicated by m, f or n next to the word in a dictionary.
• A noun can be preceded, for example, by the definite articleder, die or das, the indefinite articleein, eine, einen, or a number zwei, vier.
• The plural ending of a noun will usually be indicated in brackets next to the noun in a dictionary, for example, Hund (-e)

In German every noun has a gender and is used with an article. The definite article means 'the' and points to a specific thing:

• der (masculine), die (feminine), das (neuter).

The indefinite article means 'a/an' and refers to something more general:

• ein (masculine and neuter), eine (feminine).

In German it is easy to identify a noun because it always has a capital letter.

Practise saying these nouns out loud and focus on the article:

An easy way to learn the gender of a noun is to learn it alongside the noun - do not just learn Hund, but der Hund.

Sometimes it is easy to work out the gender of a noun as certain words always have a specific gender.

Masculine nouns

• Male family members and job descriptions:

  • for example: der Vater (father), der Bruder (brother), der Professor (professor)

• Days of the week, months, and seasons:

  • for example: der Montag (Monday), der Februar (February), der Winter (winter)

• Compass points:

  • for example: der Norden (north), der Westen (west)

• Machines and things which end in -er:

  • for example: der Computer (computer), der Taschenrechner (calculator)

Feminine nouns

• Female family members and job descriptions:
  • for example: die Mutter (mother), die Schwester (sister), die Professorin (female professor)

Neuter nouns

• Human and animal babies:
  • for example: das Baby (baby), das Lamm (lamb)

It is also possible to work out the gender of a noun by looking at the ending of the noun. Common masculine noun endings include:

Common feminine noun endings include:

Neuter noun endings include:

In English the most common way of making something plural is to add an '–s', however, there is no similar rule in German. There are a number of different endings in German.

The article changes to die for plural.

Practise what you've learned about the gender of nouns with this quiz.

Did you know:

Though not yet officially standardised, the German language is evolving to include gender neutral pronouns. Many non-binary speakers use they (imported from English) or the German pronoun sie (they). Some people use xier, sier or dey which are gender-neutral and which are conjugated in the third person in the same way as er and sie.