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German Noun
Gender: Your
Essential Guide
If you’re like many of my students, you’ve
been using Duolingo, watching YouTube, or
learning German through various online
tools. You picked up on those little
words der, die, das that always come in
front of nouns — der Mann, die Frau, das
Kind, etc.

But why the difference? Why not just pick

one — like our English ‘the’ — and use
that?

The answer: all German nouns have

gender. Everything from bee to bird to table
and chair is either a masculine, feminine, or
neuter noun.

Going from English as a genderless

language to German as a language with
three genders is no easy task! It’s a stretch
for our brains to think in this new, ‘gendered
noun’ way.

Now the big question. How do you know

what gender the noun is? Isn’t that going to
be complicated?

Well, what if I tell you that there are actually

tips and tricks to help you accurately predict
the gender of any noun a good 80% of the
time?

You’ve come to the right place. Below is my

guide to navigate German noun gender.

I’ll show you:

What you actually need to know to

learn noun genders
How this works for both English and
German
Tips, tricks and resources
Digging deeper with more
intermediate exceptions, rules, and
more.

Looking for a
Specific Topic?
Jump Ahead.
What You Need to Know

What is noun gender?

How noun gender works
Learning noun gender smarter
Digging Deeper into Noun Gender

Noun Groups
Noun Forms
Hierarchy of Rules
Noun Compounds
Noun Outliers

Main Takeaways

Study Tips

What You Need To

Know
Even though it might feel a little painful or
pointless at first, trust me — you need to
learn German genders properly and well if
you truly want to speak German.

Every noun is either masculine, feminine, or

neuter. I’m going to walk you through how
you can more easily figure out a noun’s
gender based on … ready for this? … how
the word is spelled.

That’s right! The gender of almost any

German noun is determined by its form
— especially suffixes, which are little
endings such as -at, -ion, -ung, -ig, -um, and
more.

Learn the gender of various forms as

opposed to getting hung up on individual
nouns and you’ll master German gender in
a fraction of the time.

HEADS UP: Forming German plurals is also

a bit trickier and also is very connected to
the form of the singular noun (click for
more).

What is Noun
Gender?
English uses gendered pronouns — he,
she, it, her, him, his, hers, etc. But that’s
about it. Not an important aspect of English.

Noun gender, though, is a core part of the

German language.

When we talk about noun gender, what do

we really mean?

Imagine a multi-tiered cake. The cake is the

main part, right? The frosting holds it all
together.

With language, the main part is whatever

idea you are communicating. Imagine that’s
a cake.

Something like noun gender is the ‘grammar

frosting’ — it helps hold the ideas together.

German lays the grammar on thick (we

scraped our English-language cake pretty
bare many centuries ago), but it’s still just
glue holding the main ideas together.

For example, I don’t think any German

would actually suggest that the qualities of a
fork (die Gabel) are feminine, but that of a
spoon (der Löffel) are masculine, and that of
a knife (das Messer) are neuter.

A language (e.g. English!) can function just

fine without so much ‘grammar frosting’, but
some might argue that noun gender — in all
its intricacies — adds a depth of
grammatical character.

In any case, that’s what we’ll tell ourselves

to make us feel better as we delve into
German noun gender. :p

Heads Up: The intricacies of German don’t

end there! German also uses a case system
that is crucially important (and very different
from how English works).

How Noun Gender

Works
He is a tall man. She really loves him.

In English, we substitute gendered

pronouns when talking about people (male
& female) and then ‘it’ when talking about
everything else, as in: How was her
vacation? It was really nice.

Other than that, English doesn’t have noun

gender.

However, German not only uses gendered

pronouns for people (like English does), but
also for objects — because, remember,
ALL nouns (including all objects!) are
gendered nouns in German:

Tisch (table): Er ist nagel-neu. Magst

du ihn?
(‘He’ [It] is brand-new. Do you like
‘him’ [it]?)

Blume (flower): Sie ist eine Tulpe. Ich

finde sie schön.
(‘She’ [It] is a tulip. I think ‘she’s’ [it’s]
pretty).

Haar (hair): Ihr Haar ist braun. Ich finde

es lang und üppig!
(Her hair is brown. I think it’s long and
lush!)

BUT the concept of noun gender in German

has wider application!

For example, check out this sentence –

everything bolded is related to the gender of
the nouns.

Die hübsche Frau gibt dem armen

Mann das rote Päckchen mit lauter
Geldstücken.
(The pretty woman gives the poor man
the little red package full of coins.)

Heads Up: Everything bolded is called a

declension. Learn more about this central
(and tricky) concept.

So, all German nouns have 1 of 3 genders

and the gender of each noun impacts
multiple words in a given sentence. As you
can see, German noun gender is important!

When learning a noun in German, it’s

crucial to attach the noun to its gender.
Don’t learn just Tisch, Blume, Haar.
Memorize these new words as der Tisch,
die Blume, das Haar. For more detailed
Study Tips, read below!

Fortunately, whenever we’re dealing with a

plural noun, we no longer have to worry
about gender. Regardless how you say ‘the’
for the singular noun, ‘the’ just becomes die
for all the plural versions (die Hunde, die
Katzen, die Pferde).

However, there are 5 different ways to form

plurals in German (not counting oddballs) so
you’ll want to become well-versed in that,
too. Read more on noun plurals here.

Learn German Noun

Gender Smarter, Not
Harder
As you’re just getting started with German,
it’s a good idea to memorize the gender for
each isolated noun.

BUT. The average native speaker (of any

language) uses upwards of 20,000 — many
of which are nouns. Memorizing the gender
each and every noun would be mighty-hard
to do.

Luckily, we have a few tricks up our sleeves!

Nouns can be lumped together

according to:

1. Noun Groups (specific topic groups

associated with particular genders)
e.g. all months of the year are
masculine

2. Noun Forms (specific spelling patterns

associated with particular genders)
e.g. all nouns ending in -ung are
feminine
Read below in the ‘Digging Deeper’ section
for many examples (and exceptions) to
these noun group & noun form rules!

Digging Deeper
In this section, we’ll explore various noun
groups & noun forms associated with one
gender over the others. We’ll also talk about
‘outliers’ nouns such as these:

nouns that defy the typical rules for

groups, forms, and compounds
foreign-word nouns for which gender
hasn’t (yet) been firmly established
nouns with varying gender based on
the context and/or region
nouns with double (or triple!) genders,
with then different definitions
English loan-words

Noun Groups
You’re busy and sometimes German feels
like a big bite that you’ve somehow got to
chew.

So, how can you learn German genders

smarter, not harder?

One answer: by learning the gender of

various topics!

There are many topics — weather,

numbers, minerals — that are closely
associated with just one of the three
genders, with limited exceptions.

Below, we’ll look at which topics you can

quickly learn to associate with which gender
(including examples & common exceptions).

Masculine Groups
The following topics are filled with largely
masculine nouns.

It’s much faster to memorize which

categories (e.g. days of the week) are
masculine — even noting the handful of
exceptions — then to keep memorizing the
gender of each individual noun you come
across.

Learning the following subjects with

masculine nouns builds a big-picture
framework that you can attach individual
words to (and remember them better!).

In other words, learning these categories of

masculine nouns provides you with helpful
context.

Listed are the masculine noun subject

areas and exceptions (click for
examples):

! Animals

! Cars

! Currency

! Days, Months, and Seasons

! Directions

! Drinks: Alcoholic and Plant-based

! Male Persons

! Mountains and Mountain Ranges

! Non-German Rivers

! Outer Space

! Rocks and Minerals

! Weather

Feminine Groups
There are many masculine and neuter noun
topics. There are notably fewer feminine
noun categories (even easier to memorize!).

Extra Bonus: various means of

transportation (ships, motorbikes, etc.) can
also be referred to as feminine in English
(“Check out my new boat! She’s a real
beauty!”), which is one of the rare instances
in English that we might use gendered
pronouns for anything other than people.
So, make the most of that connection!

Listed are the feminine noun subject

areas and exceptions (click for
examples):

! Airplane, motorcycle, & ship

makes/models/names

! Animals

! Female Persons

! Numerals used as nouns

! Rivers within Germany, Austria,

Switzerland

! Trees, Fruits, and Flowers

Neuter Groups
Like the masculine noun topics, there are
many neuter noun categories.

Still, if you’re feeling overwhelmed,

remember to 1) just take it all slowly and
gradually and 2) cheer yourself with the
truth that this way is still infinitely better
when you were memorizing what seemed
like purely random gender for each
individual noun! Now you have a system!

Listed are the neuter noun subject areas

and exceptions (click for examples):

! Alphabet letters and music notes

! Continents, cities, provinces, and

most countries

! Gerunds, colors, languages, English

-ing forms and other parts of speech
used as nouns

! Hotels, cafes, restaurants, and

movie theaters

! Metals and chemical elements

! Scientific units

! Young persons and baby animals

Tip: In many, but not all, instances,

the exceptions to the noun group
rules can be explained by
understanding that the noun form
rules (keep reading below!) most
often trump the noun group rules.

Noun Forms
In addition to noun groups, we can
categorize German noun gender according
to spelling patterns (generally ‘suffixes’
added on to the end of words).

It’s very useful to learn both noun groups

and noun forms, but note that, when in
conflict, the following noun form rules
overrule noun group rules!

You may find some other words that seem

to break the rules for noun forms, but, really,
are shortened words that take the gender of
the full form, for example:

der Akku (Akkumulator) battery [-or is

a masc. ending]
das Labor (Laboratorium) laboratory [-
um is a neut. ending]
die Uni (Universität) university [-tät is a
fem. ending]

Masculine Forms

The following are masculine noun suffixes

and other forms associated with masculine
noun gender (click for examples and
exceptions):

! -ant, -ast, -ich, -ig, -ling, -or, -us

! nouns formed from strong verbs

! ~60% of nouns ending in -en, -el, -er

Feminine Forms:
Here are feminine noun suffixes and other
forms associated with feminine noun gender
(click for examples and common
exceptions):

! -a, -anz, -enz, -ei, -ie, -heit, -keit, -ik, -

sion, -tion, -sis, -tät, -ung, -ur, schaft

! -in OR -frau denoting the female

counterpart to a male person

! 90% of nouns ending in -e

! most nouns (coming from verbs)

ending in -t

Neuter Forms:
Finally, here is the (longest of the 3!) list of
suffixes and other forms connected with
neuter noun gender (click for examples
and common exceptions):

! -chen, -lein, -icht, -il, -it, -ma, -ment, -

tel, -tum, -um

! most nouns that start with the prefix

Ge-

! ~70% of nouns ending with -nis and

-sal

! -al, -an, -ar, -är, -at, -ent, -ett, -ier, -

iv-, -o, -on (foreign loan words for
objects)

TIP: if you memorize just the

masculine and feminine forms, you
can know by default that whatever
else you come across is either
definitely a neuter noun or some
sort of wacky outlier.

Noun Compounds
Usually, the final word in a compound noun
determines the gender, as in:

der Fahrplan (timetable)

die Bushaltestelle (bus stop)

Note that the gender of acronyms is

similarly determined by the base word:

die CDU (die Christlich-Demokratische

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