The feminine gender in German (die)

Feminine gender

All German nouns have to be written with capital letters.

▶ Example: der Mann (= man), die Frau (= woman), das Kind (= child). 

 

Nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine si neuter.

▶ The gender is indicated by an article: der, die, das

· der - for masculine gender

· die - for feminine gender

· das - for neuter gender

The article for plural, for all nouns is “die”.

Examples:

Remember: the gender of nouns in german differ from the gender of the same nouns translated into english.

Examples:
▶ das Mädchen = girl (in german the noun “das Mädchen” is of neuter gender, as indicated by the article“das”; in english the noun “girl” is of feminine gender) 
▶ der Tisch = table (in german the noun “der Tisch” is of masculine gender, as indicated by the article “der”; in english the noun “table” is of neuter gender) 
▶ die Uhr = clock (in german the noun “die Uhr” is of feminine gender, as indicated by the article “die”; in english the noun “clock” is of neuter gender) 

There is no general rule for identifying the gender of a noun in german.

For this reason it is strongly recommended that you learn german nouns with their articles (der, die, das).

 

Despite the difficulties in identifying the gender of a noun, there a few rules:

The feminine gender

Rules	Examples of nouns of feminine gender
Female persons and female names ▶	die Julia, die Frau (= woman), die Mutter (= mother), die Dame (= lady) Exeption: das Mädchen (= girl, is of neuter gender)
Names of airplanes ▶	die Airlines, die Lufthansa, die Concorde, die Boeing, die Airbus etc.
Names of fruints ▶	die Birne (= pear) die Banane (= banana) die Erdbeere (=strawberry) die Himbeere (= raspberry) die Melone (= melon), die Mandarine (= mandarin), die Erdnuß (= peanut), die Nuß (= nut), die Ananas (= pineapple) Exception: der Apfel (= apple, is of masculine gender), etc.
Nouns ending in: -in, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -ung, -tät, -tion, -ange, -ette -ade etc ▶	die Sekretärin (= secretary), die Krankheit (= disease), die Gesundheit (= health), die Nettigkeit (= niceness), die Manschaft (= team), die Übung (= exercise), die Universität (= university), die Lektion (= lesson), die Redaktion (= editorial office), die Schlange (= snake), die Wette (= bett), die Marmelade (= jam, jelly) etc.

 

The examples above are practical, but there are many exceptions!