A noun is a person, position or thing. All German nouns will have to start with a capital letter and all have a gender: masculine, feminine or neuter.
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How to use genres and articles in German
All nouns in German are masculine, feminine, or neuter.
When you are informed that the word for dog is Hund, you will be informed that it is a masculine noun: der Hund.
For masculine nouns, der “the” – der Hund – “the dog”.
For feminine nouns, die “the” – die Katze – “the cat”.
And for neuter nouns, das “the” – das Kaninchen – the rabbit.
There is more than one word for “a”. Therefore, ein is “a” for masculine nouns: ein Hund.
Eine is “a” for a noun – eine Katze and ein is “a” for an unbiased noun – ein Kaninchen.
So how do you know the gender of a noun?Well, there are hints for you. Sometimes gender makes sense: “father” is masculine – der Vater and “mother” is feminine – die Mutter.
Sometimes there are groups of names that belong to a certain genus. For example, the days of the week are masculine – der Montag, and many drinks are also masculine der Kaffee.
Words ending in e are feminine – die Lampe – “the lamp”.
While words taken from English are neutral, for example das Internet, das Baby.
It’s great to be informed of gender with the noun to know if it’s der, die or das or ein, eine or ein.
Gender is vital because it determines many things related to the noun, such as articles and adjectives. Nouns are also singular or plural. Here are some clues to help you with the genre.
The definite article is the word for the. There are 4 other definite articles in German, depending on the gender and number of the noun. Take a look at the following table.
The indefinite article is the word for a and an. There are 3 other indefinite articles in German. Take a look at the following table.
There is no plural indefinite article. Ein, eine, and ein are used for singular nouns.
The article changes depending on where the noun is used in the sentence. This is called the German Case System.
The nominative case is used when the noun is the topic of the sentence. The theme is what or thing that “forms” the verb in the sentence.
Take a look at the definite and undefined noun articles below.
The accusative is used when the noun is the direct object of the sentence. This means that it has the verb “done. ” It comes after the verb.
Take a look at the defined and indefinite accusative articles below.
If a noun is plural, you’ll need to use the article die. To convert a German noun to plural, you can’t just load s as in English. Plurals in German have other endings depending on the noun. Masculine and neuter nouns charge an -e and feminine nouns charge an -n.
Masculine and neuter nouns:
Female Names:
There are a few exceptions to look out for:
Nouns ending in -chen and -er are the same.
Some names add an umlaut to the vowel and then -e or -er at the end:
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three Bücher, vier Mäuse, 2 Häuser
Some nouns have an -s as in English:
Find out everything you know about German genres and articles in this quiz!
Game – FestiLingo: German. gameGame – FestiLingo: German
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