Gender

Gender

German language has three genders:

• masculine   (der)
• feminine     (die)
• neuter         (das)

The grammatical gender doesn’t specifically reflets the natural gender and hence needs to be learnt.

Rules for the grammatical gender

It is not necessary to learn the gender of every noun individually . Certain groups of noun can be classed together:

Masculine nouns: der

• Seasons of the year, months, weekdays, points of the compass

       der Sommer, der Montag, der Januar, der Norden

• Nouns ending in -ig, -ling, -ant, -er, -ismus, -or (exception: das Restaurant)

      der Pfennig, der Lehrling, der Protestant, der Sprecher, der Marxismus, der Tutor

Feminine nouns: die

• Nouns with derived endings: -ion, -anz, -enz, -ie, -ik, -ur, -age, -ette

die Information, die Vakanz, die Lizenz, die Kopie, die Chronik, die Figur, die Garage, die Diskette

• Nouns ending in -heit, -keit, -ei, -schaft, -ung, -tӓt, -nis

die Krankheit, die Wirklichket, die Malerei, die Freundschaft, die Nahrung, die Fakultӓt, die Kenntnis

• Names of aeroplanes and ships:

die Boeing 747, die Alte Liebe

Neuter nouns: das

• Names of continents, countries, islands and place names, which are used without an article when not accompanied by an adjective: Europa , Deutschland
• Names of Hotels, cinemas and cafés : das Hilton, das Metropol, das Kempinski
• Nouns ending in -um, -ment, -ett and -icht

Gender of compound nouns

In compound nouns, it is always the second or last part of the word that determines the gender

• Referred from Book: German: A handbook of grammar, current usage and word power by Christine Eckhard-Black Ruth Whittle