Nuts & Bolts of German (Practice): Gender of nouns: Some detective work (VIII)

All German nouns have a grammatical gender. They can be masculine, feminine or neuter. The masculine definite article ( =the) in the singular is der, the feminine one is die, and the neuter one is das.

Although there is no apparent rationale for this classification, a number of guidelines will help you to predict the gender of a particular noun.

Study the lists of words and complete the gender guideline underneath. Fill in all the gaps, then press [Check] to see if you were correct. Use the [Hint] button to get a free letter if you need help.

die Frau, die Schwester, die Tante, die Mutter, die Studentin, die Freundin, die Journalistin, die Professorin, die Irin, die Engländerin etc.
but: das Mädchen, das Fräulein

In German, nouns designating persons, their professions and their nationalities are nearly always .

The two famous exceptions are "das Mädchen (the girl)" and "das Fräulein (old-fashined word for an unmarried woman)". That is because these two words end in "-chen" and "-lein", and German nouns ending in -chen and -lein are always neuter. Mind you, "der Junge (the boy)" ends in -e [see Some detective work (II)] and could therefore be feminine, but this was never the case. It's "der Junge".

Die Pianistin und Komponistin Clara Wieck (Clara Schumann once she was married to Robert Schumann) auf dem deutschen Hundertmarkschein.

Click here to access information on other gender guidelines

Wörterbuch (LEO)

Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS)

Wörterbuch (Linguee)

Wörterbuch (dict.cc)

Wörterbuch (PONS)

Terminologie A - Z

Tip: If you don't belong to the lucky few who possess a photographic memory, write down what you learnt while doing this exercise.

Nuts & Bolts of German: Gender of nouns: Some detective work (VIII)