Fr. Sojan Maniyamprayil OSB. 10.09.

2020

The Basic Characteristics of German Nouns

1. German Nouns could be a person, a location, an object or a concept:
der Freund (friend), die Stadt (city), das Handy (mobile phone).
2. German Nouns are always capitalized, like proper names in English:
der Freund (friend), die Stadt (city), das Handy (mobile phone).
3. German Nouns can be singular or plural: der Man (man), die Männer (men). The plural forms will
always be: die Männer (men). das Kind (child), die Kinder (children).
4. In English, all nouns, except humans and some animals, have the same gender (a, an, the). But in
German, each and every noun has particular genders (definite articles): masculine, feminine, neuter:
der, die, das. A Report by Duden (in German) states that 98.7% of German nouns have a single gender,
just under 1.3% of nouns can be used with two genders, .02% of nouns can be used with all three
genders and less than 0.1% of nouns have no gender at all (e.g. AIDS, Allerheiligen [All Saints holiday]).
Of all the nouns with a unique gender, 46% are feminine, 34% masculine and 20% neuter.
It is interesting to note that some popular nouns, appearing in the same contexts or situations,
could have different articles!!!
01. der Vater (father) - die Mutter (mother) - das Kind (child).
02. der Löffel (spoon) - die Gabel (fork) - das Messer (knife).
03. der Saft (juice) - die Cola (cola) - das Wasser (water).
04. der Käse (cheese) - die Butter (butter) - das Brot (bread).
05. der Salat (salad) - die Sosse (sauce) - das Salz (salt).
06. der Tee (tea) - die Milch (milk) - das Glas (glass).
07. der Tisch (table) - die Tasse (cup) - das Buch (book).
08. der Mund (mouth) - die Nase (nose) - das Auge (eye).
09. der Tag (day) - die Woche (week) - das Jahr (year).
10. der Anzug (suit) - die Hose (trousers) - das Hemd (shirt).
11. der Computer (computer) - die Kamera (camera) - das Handy (mobile phone).
12. der Fernseher (television) - die Zeitung (newpaper) - das Radio (radio).
13. der Hund (dog) - die Katze (cat) - das Schwein (pig).
14. der Schein (certificate) - die Urkunde (document) - das Zertifikat (certificate).
Some Observations:
1. The Nouns from the same ‘situations’ (contexts); could have different genders!!! Look at the examples
above.
2. The same Nouns with the same genders; could have different meanings!!! die Bank (bank) - die Bank
(bench).
3. The same Nouns with different genders; could have the same meanings!!! der/das Joghurt (yoghurt).
der/das Terminal (terminal).
4. The same Nouns with two different genders; could have two different meanings!!! der Leiter (leader) - die
Leiter (ladder). der See (lake) - die See (sea, ocean).
5. The Nouns appearing similar; could have different genders and different meanings!!! die Uhr (clock, watch)
- das Ohr (ear).
6. The Nouns with the same endings; could have different genders!!! der Wind (wind) - die Wand (wall). die
Not (need, hardship) - das Brot (bread).
7. The Nouns with the same endings; could have all the three genders!!! der Gehalt (content) - die Gestalt
(figure, shape, character) - das Gehalt (salary, pay).