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:
Number and gender | Noun | Pluralul, for all genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) |
singular, masculine | Der Mann (= man) | Die Männer (= men) |
singular, feminine | Die Frau (= woman) | Die Frauen (= women) |
singular, neuter | Das Kind (= child) | Die Kinder (= children) |
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!