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How to use genders and articles in German

All nouns in German are either masculine, feminine or neuter.

When you learn that the word for dog is Hund, learn that it’s a masculine noun - der Hund.

For masculine nouns der means ‘the’ - der Hund - ‘the dog’.

For feminine nouns die means ‘the’ - die Katze - ‘the cat’.

And for neuter nouns das means ‘the’ - das Kaninchen - the rabbit.

There’s also more than one word for ‘a’. So ein is ‘a’ for masculine nouns - ein Hund.

Eine is ‘a’ for a feminine nouns - eine Katze and ein is ‘a’ for a neuter nouns - ein Kaninchen.

So how do you know the gender of a noun? Well, there are clues to help you. Sometimes the gender is logical: ‘father’ is masculine - der Vater and ‘mother’ is feminine - die Mutter.

Sometimes there are groups of nouns that are a certain gender. For example the days of the week are masculine - der Montag, and lots of drinks are also masculine too der Kaffee.

Words ending in e are usually feminine - die Lampe - ‘the lamp’.

Whereas words borrowed from English are usually neuter for example das Internet, das Baby.

It’s really good to learn the gender with the noun so you know whether it’s der, die or das or ein, eine or ein.