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German Noun Genders:

Hacks to Learn them Faster
by BENNY LEWIS

Learning German? You’re going to notice one major difference between English
and German grammar right away: German noun genders.

All German nouns are one of three genders: masculine, feminine or neutral.

For someone who is just starting out with German, this can be really confusing –
especially as the genders don’t necessarily seem logical.

Take cutlery for example. You have die Gabel (the fork), der Löffel (the spoon)
and das Messer (the knife). A fork is feminine, a spoon masculine and a knife
neutral. All you can do is sit there and scratch your head. How does that make
sense? Who made these decisions to begin with?!

Although they don’t always make sense, they are something you have to learn.
Just as there’s no rainbow without rain, there’s no German noun without its
article. That’s because in German, the gender of a noun is part of its identity. If
you say or write a German word without the article that dictates gender, you
won’t be using the noun correctly.
Why Does the German Language Have Genders?
When you’re learning German, it’s important to remember that the word, not the
thing, has a gender.

English words have genders too – they just tend to be obvious. That’s because in
English, gender refers to the actual gender of the noun being referenced. Girl is
a feminine word, boy is masculine, and table is neutral. This makes sense. A girl
is female, a boy is male, and a table is an inanimate object. How could a table
have a gender?

Note: Some objects, such as boats, have a gender in English.

German is different. In German, gender is de ned not by the gender of the noun,
but by the meaning and the form of the word. Genders in German were
originally intended to signify three grammatical categories that words could be
grouped into.

The three categories were:

• endings that indicated that a word was of neutral origin.

• endings that indicated a group of people or things. These became feminine.
• nouns that had no ending. These remained masculine.

This is what we’re left with today, in a rather convoluted way! You can see at
least, how we can then make the distinction between words being grouped
together for their intended gender, rather than the gender of an object itself.

Rather than arguing over whether a table should be masculine, feminine or

neutral (for the record, it’s masculine – Der Tisch), we can begin to understand
why this is the case. And you can argue the why of it until you’re blue in the face,
but the fact is – gender is something you’re going to have to learn.

My best advice is this: don’t worry too much about the whys of gender in
German. Instead, focus on the best ways to remember word genders.

With that in mind, let’s see how learning German genders can be made simple.
Shortcuts to Work Out German Noun Genders
Although some words require you to learn the gender by heart, there are many
cases where you can look at the ending of a word to work out the gender.

In this section, I refer to de nite articles and inde nite articles. Der, die and das
are de nite articles, and replace the English word “the”, while ein and eine are
the inde nite articles for “a”/“an”. These articles are used to identify the gender
of the noun they go with.

How to Identify Masculine Nouns in German (der/ein)

Masculine German nouns take the de nite article der (the) and inde nite ein
(a/an).

To gure out whether a word is masculine, look for the following word endings:

-er, -el, -ling, -ich, -ig, -ner, -ismus, -or, -us, -eich, -ant

Following this rule, you’ll be correct around 80% of the time.

Also, anything to do with calendar dates tends to be masculine – days, months

and seasons fall under this category.

Finally, male animals and weather elements are usually masculine.

From this, you can deduce that the following words are masculine:

• der Autor (author)

• der Vater (father)
• der Mittwoch (Wednesday)
 • der Regen (rain)*

How to Recognise Feminine Nouns in German (die/eine)

Feminine German nouns use the de nite article die (the) and inde nite article
eine (a/an).

As with masculine nouns, the easiest way to identify a feminine noun is to look
at the word ending. Look out for the following word endings:

-e (mostly, as the exception is male persons or animals, such as der Löwe (the
lion)), -ie, -heit, -ei, -in, -ik, -keit, – schaft, -ung, -tät, -ur, -tion

Funnily enough, things that would normally be associated with femininity are
usually feminine too – like owers and trees, along with female animals and
people.

• die Blume ( ower)

• die Familie (family)
• die Mannschaft (team)

How to Identify Neutral Nouns in German (das/ein)

Neutral German nouns take the de nite article das (the) and inde nite article
ein (a/an).

To spot neutral nouns, look out for the following word endings:

-chen, -o, -lein, -en, -il, -ma, -tel, -ment, -nis, -tum, -um

Most inanimate objects do fall under the category of neutral. Also, most metals,
as well as babies (both human and animal) tend to have neutral genders.

Let’s look at some examples.

• das Kind (child)

• das Fragment (fragment)
• das Gold (gold)

What About Plurals in German?

When German nouns become plural, they adopt the feminine de nite article of
die. So, der/die/das become die/die/die. For example, der Mann becomes die
Männer. This is not because they are changing gender – it is because the
inde nite article is (technically) dropped.

What are the Exceptions to the Der/Die/Das Rules?

Unfortunately, not all German nouns can be neatly grouped into the categories I
outlined above. You’re going to stumble into the odd word that seems to play by
its own rules.

Some countries fall into this category. For example, Switzerland is feminine (die
Schweiz) and the USA is plural (die USA).

How do you get around this?

Your best bet with these words is to focus on memorising the gender, rather
than guring it out on the y. I recommend creating a deck of ashcards for the
words whose genders you must remember. Anki is my favourite tool for this.

Another memory tool you can use here is association – also known as letting
your imagination run wild. Let’s say you wanted to learn the gender for
strawberry, Die Erdbeeren. You create an association in your mind by imagining
your mother giving you some strawberries – they’re feminine and so is she.

What about der Fremdling, the stranger? Imagine encountering a male stranger
on the street. Food (das Essen), meanwhile, is neutral, so you could think of a
bland meal. You’ll be surprised by how easy it is to remember articles by
creating these images in your mind.

Finally, don’t let these unusual cases hold you back. If you nd yourself mid-
conversation, and you’re unsure of the gender of a noun, just guess. You’ve got a
one in three chance of getting it right. Not bad odds. And most Germans will
correct you on the spot if you’re wrong, so you can learn as you go.

The Best Way to Learn German Noun Genders

My top tip for language learners is always to speak from day one. Speaking a
language from the rst day you start learning it helps you get over your fear of
being “wrong” – because you will make mistakes, and you’ll learn that making
mistakes is okay. Someone who puts themselves out there is ten times more
likely to have success in language learning than those who don’t.

After all, what’s the worst that can happen? If you get it wrong, chances are
someone will correct you (especially in Germany) and you’ll know how to say it
right the next time you need to use that particular word. Native German
speakers are notoriously direct and will be more than happy to help you out!

On top of using German genders in real conversations, here are my top tips for
making them fun to learn. Be warned – there’s lots of gender stereotyping
ahead!

• Pick some Post-It notes – maybe pink for feminine words, blue for
masculine words and yellow for neutral. Label objects around the house,
according to the gender of each noun.
• Buy some of those sparkly gel pens and use different colours to group
gendered words together. You’ll be surprised by what colour association can
do for your memory.
*Stand in front of your mirror and practise saying nouns in different voices.
Pitch low for masculine nouns, high for feminine and use your normal voice
for practising neutral.

Of course these are just a few suggestions to get you started. You can stick to
methods that are a little bit more conventional or go completely crazy with
colour coding ALL THE NOUNS. It’s completely up to you!

Is Gender Really Necessary?

If you’re approaching language learning with the goal of becoming a polyglot at
some point in the future, then it is really important that you take the time to
learn and understand gendered nouns.

Many languages, particularly in Europe, have gendered nouns. As hard as it may

be to make sense of them when you’re starting out, I promise you that it will get
easier with the next language you learn. And any that you may choose to study
after that.
Over to You
Who knows – maybe in time the German language will simplify and gendered
nouns will become redundant.

Until then, you’ll have to learn genders. So keep at it!

What are your top tips for learning the genders of German nouns? Let me know
in the comments.

And nally... One of the best ways to learn a new language is with podcasts.
Read more about how to use podcasts to learn a language.

BENNY LEWIS
Founder, Fluent in 3 Months

SPEAKS: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto,

Mandarin Chinese, American Sign Language, Dutch, Irish

Fun-loving Irish guy, full-time globe trotter and international

bestselling author. Benny believes the best approach to
language learning is to speak from day one.

View all posts by Benny Lewis

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