German nouns

Nouns, gender, & compound nouns

Identifying nouns

While a noun is traditionally defined as a person, place, or thing, it is important to remember that more abstract "things" or ideas -- for example, Glück (happiness), Freiheit (freedom), and Geschichte (history) -- are also nouns. Nouns in German are easy to identify because they are all capitalized:

Unser Sohn fährt mit dem Auto in die Stadt.
Our son is driving to the city by car.

In the above sentence, Sohn (son), Auto (car), and Stadt (city) are nouns.

Identifying nouns | Nouns and gender | Gender patterns | Nouns with 2 genders | Compound nouns
Plural forms | Plural patterns | Weak nouns | Adjectival nouns | Infinitive nouns
GRAMMAR INDEX

Nouns and gender

Unlike in English, in the German language every noun has a gender. The genders are indicated by the definite articles der (masculine), die (feminine), and das (neuter), which all mean the.

der Mann	the man	die Frau	the woman	das Kind	the child
der Tisch	the table	die Sonne	the sun	das Feuer	the fire
der Stein	the rock	die Frage	the question	das Buch	the book

As you can see from these examples, the gender of a noun normally has little to do with the specific qualities of the object it refers to. That's because noun gender is a grammatical concept that has to do with words rather than any physical attribute of the things they represent. For this reason, a single object might be identified with nouns of different genders. A car can be called das Auto or der Wagen, depending on a person's preference. A camera is die Kamera or der Fotoapparat. The season spring can be either der Frühling or das Frühjahr. When a noun refers to a person, the word's gender usually corresponds to the person's physical gender: Mann is masculine, Frau is feminine. However, grammatical and physical gender are not always consistent; note that the gender of the word Kind is neuter whether the child referred to is male or female. It may help to think of the genders as simply categories of nouns to avoid confusion with the notion of physical gender.

Identifying nouns | Nouns and gender | Gender patterns | Nouns with 2 genders | Compound nouns
Plural forms | Plural patterns | Weak nouns | Adjectival nouns | Infinitive nouns
GRAMMAR INDEX

Gender patterns

While the genders of many nouns are random and unpredictable, there are several categories of nouns that have tendencies to belong to a certain gender category. These can be certain groups of nouns referring to like things or they can share common linguistic features.

MASCULINE:

Male individuals, citizens, and professionals:	der Mann, der Vater, der Amerikaner, der Lehrer, der Chef, der Psychologe
Days of the week, months, seasons, compass points:	der Montag, der April, der Winter, der Norden   BUT: das Frühjahr
Weather features:	der Schnee, der Regen, der Wind, der Tau
Nouns ending in: -ig, -ling, -ich, -or, -us:	der Pfennig, der Schmetterling, der Teppich, der Tutor, der Kommunismus
See also: Weak nouns

FEMININE:

Female individuals, citizens, and professionals:	die Frau, die Schwester, die Kanadierin, die Ärztin, die Kandidatin
Most nouns ending in -e:	die Blume, die Straße, die Karte   BUT: der Name, das Auge
Nouns ending in: -ei, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -ung, -tät, -nis	die Malerei, die Slowakei, die Schönheit, die Eitelkeit, die Landschaft, die Erzählung, die Universität, die Erkenntnis   BUT: der Papagei
Nouns derived from foreign words, ending in: -anz, -enz, -ie, -ik, -ion, -ur	die Toleranz, die Frequenz, die Sympathie, die Musik, die Information, die Kultur
Cardinal numbers used as a noun:	die Eins, die Dreizehn, die Million   BUT: das Hundert, das Tausend

NEUTER:

Names of continents, countries, islands, places used without an article unless with an adjective:	Europa, Österreich, Helgoland, das schöne Sachsen, unser liebes Deutschland
Nouns derived from verb infinitives:	das Schlafen, das Essen, das Einkaufen
Dimuntives ending in: -chen, -lein	das Mädchen, das Männlein
Many collective nouns beginning with Ge-:	das Geschirr, das Gepäck, das Gebirge, das Geflügel
Nouns derived from foreign words, ending in: -tum -um, -ment	das Heldentum, das Studium, das Datum, das Instrument
Letters of the alphabet:	das Ypsilon, das große A

Identifying nouns | Nouns and gender | Gender patterns | Nouns with 2 genders | Compound nouns
Plural forms | Plural patterns | Weak nouns | Adjectival nouns | Infinitive nouns
GRAMMAR INDEX

Nouns with 2 genders

There are a handful of German nouns that have more than one gender. These fall into two general categories:

Nouns with multiple gender preferences: These nouns vary in gender depending on regional or individual choice. Here are some more common examples:

der or das Bonbon	candy	der or das Salbei	sage
der or das Joghurt	yogurt	der or das Schrot	whole wheat
der or das Keks	cookie	der or die Sellerie	celery
der or das Liter	liter	der or das Sims	sill, ledge
das or der Poster	poster	der or das Virus	virus

Nouns with identical spellings but different meanings: Though spelled the same, these nouns have different meanings and are considered unrelated, separate nouns. Some examples are:

der Gehalt	contents	das Gehalt	salary
der Golf	gulf	das Golf	golf
die Heide	heath, moor	der Heide	pagan
der Kiefer	jaw	die Kiefer	pine tree
der Kunde	customer	die Kunde	information
der Leiter	leader	die Leiter	ladder
der Messer	gauge	das Messer	knife
der Moment	moment	das Moment	element, factor
das Schild	sign	der Schild	shield
die See	sea, ocean	der See	lake
die Steuer	tax	das Steuer	steering-wheel
das Tor	gate	der Tor	fool
die Weise	way, manner	der Weise	wise man
das Verdienst	merit	der Verdienst	earnings

ALSO: der Band: volume; das Band: ribbon, tape; die Band: musical band

Identifying nouns | Nouns and gender | Gender patterns | Nouns with 2 genders | Compound nouns
Plural forms | Plural patterns | Weak nouns | Adjectival nouns | Infinitive nouns |Grammar index

Compound nouns

The German language contains many compound nouns. These consist of two or more words connected into a single word. The combined words can be not only nouns, but also adjectives, adverbs, verb stems, and prepositions. However, the last element of the compound must be a noun. German also allows for the invention of new compounds. The last word in the compound always determines the gender and plural form of the compound noun.

der Arm + das Band + die Uhr = die Armbanduhr (watch)
das Haupt + die Stadt = die Hauptstadt (capital city)
geh(en) + der Weg = der Gehweg (walkway)
schnell + der Zug = der Schnellzug (fast train)
ab + die Fahrt = die Abfahrt (departure)

Some words require an -n-, -en-, -s- or -es- between the combined words.

der Bund + -es- + das Land = das Bundesland (federal state)
die Straße + -n- + das Schild = das Straßenschild (street sign)
krank + -en- + der Wagen = der Krankenwagen (ambulance)

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Identifying nouns | Nouns and gender | Gender patterns | Nouns with 2 genders | Compound nouns
Plural forms | Plural patterns | Weak nouns | Adjectival nouns | Infinitive nouns
GRAMMAR INDEX

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