Gender and Plurals

of Nouns
O All nouns are capitalised

O All nouns have a grammatical gender
der = masculine noun
die = feminine noun
das = neuter noun

O There are no definite rules, but there are
some generalisations you can learn
Gender Identification .by
noun groups
O nouns referring to people, e.g.

masculine: der Vater, der Onkel

feminine: die Mutter, die Tante

neuter: das Kind, das Ktzchen, das
Schwesterlein

Masculine Nouns:
O all calendar days: der Montag,
O all calendar months: der Januar,
O all seasons: der Sommer,
O all cardinal directions: der Westen,
Feminine Nouns:
O most trees: die Tanne,
O most fruits: die Banane,
O Exception: der Apfel
O most flowers: die Orchidee,
Neuter Nouns:
O names of metals: das Gold,
O names of cities: das historische
Mnchen,(only when noun is modified)
O names of most countries: das moderne
Deutschland
O Exceptions:
die Schweiz, die Trkei,.
der Iran,
Plural: die Niederlande, die Vereinigten Staaten
von Amerika


by word endings:
O Nouns ending in -el, -en, -er, -ig, -ich and
ling are usually masculine e.g. der Teppich
O But there are many exceptions: die Butter, die
Mutter, die Tochter,
O Nouns ending in age, -e, -ei, -heit, -keit, -
schaft, -ie, -ik, -in, -ion, -tt, -ung, -ur are
almost always feminine, e.g. die Liebe,
Familie, die Musik,
O Nouns ending in tum, -ment, -ium, -um and
infinitives used as nouns are always neuter,
e.g. das Instrument, das Museum, das Hren
Hints for learning Gender of
Nouns
O Always learn the gender of a noun when you
are learning a noun.
O Not knowing a word's gender can lead to all
sorts of other problems: e.g. das Tor is the
gate or portal; der Tor is the fool. / Are you
meeting someone at the lake (am See) or by
the sea (an der See)?
O The highest percentage of German nouns are
masculine.
O Compound nouns (when two nouns are
combined): the last component determines
the gender of the noun, e.g. das Deutschbuch
QUIZ
O http://german.about.com/library/blgenderq
z01.htm
O http://german.about.com/library/blgenderq
z02.htm

Plural forms of nouns:
O All German nouns, regardless of gender,
become die in the nominative and accusative
plural.
O There is no fixed rule about plurals in German.
O But there are patterns, which help you to predict
the plural forms of most nouns. What are they?
O der - ( )e
O die - (e)n
O das single syllable ( ) er double syllable ( )e
O There are main five groups.

Group 1
O Plural Nouns With no End Changes
Some add an umlaut. Most nouns in this
group are either neuter or masculine and
usually contain one of the following
endings: -chen, -lein, -el, -en or -er.
O e.g. der Bruder, die Brder
O e.g. das Fenster, die Fenster

Group 2:
O Plural nouns adding -e
Some add an umlaut. Most nouns have only
one syllable.
O e.g. der Arm, die Arme
O e.g. der Berg, die Berge
O e.g. die Hand, die Hnde

Group 3:
O Plural nouns adding -er
Some add an umlaut. Most of these nouns
are neuter, some masculine.
O e.g. das Bild, die Bilder
O e.g. der Gott, die Gtter
O e.g. der Mann, die Mnner


Group 4:
O Plural nouns adding (e)n
Some add an umlaut. Most of these nouns
are neuter, some masculine.
O e.g. der Hase, die Hasen
O e.g. die Katze, die Katzen

Group 5:
O Plural nouns adding s
These are mostly nouns of foreign origin
O e.g. der Job, die Jobs
O e.g. die Kamera, die Kameras

Irregular Plural Nouns:
der Bus, die Busse
die Firma, die Firmen
das Museum, die Museen
das Wort, die Wrter

Some words are only used in the plural, e.g.
die Eltern, die Leute,