Articles & Gender (Nominative)
Articles & Gender (Nominative)
Every German noun belongs to one of three grammatical genders — masculine, feminine, or neuter — a system Old English also had, but lost long ago. You must memorize each noun's gender along with the word itself.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Grammatical gender: a concept English left behind
der Mann (m.), die Frau (f.), das Kind (n.)
the man, the woman, the child
Old English sorted nouns into masculine, feminine, and neuter too, but by the late Middle English period this system had disappeared, leaving modern English with a single all-purpose "the." German never lost it: every noun is der (masculine), die (feminine), or das (neuter) in the nominative case, and the assignment is often arbitrary rather than logical — das Mädchen ("girl") is neuter, not feminine, because nouns ending in -chen are always neuter regardless of the person's actual sex. Always learn a noun together with its article — "der Tisch," never just "Tisch."
Indefinite article: ein / eine
ein Mann, eine Frau, ein Kind
a man, a woman, a child
Masculine and neuter nouns share ein; only feminine nouns take eine. This mirrors English's single "a/an," except German's version already carries gender information — a clue for the rest of the sentence, since adjectives and pronouns referring back to the noun will need to agree with that gender.
A few gender patterns worth knowing
die Lampe (-e → usually fem.), das Mädchen (-chen → always neut.), der Lehrer (-er, person → usually masc.)
the lamp, the girl, the teacher
Most German genders must simply be memorized, but a handful of endings are reliable predictors: nouns ending in -e are usually feminine, diminutives ending in -chen or -lein are always neuter (regardless of meaning), and agent nouns ending in -er referring to a male person or a machine are usually masculine. These patterns cover a meaningful minority of nouns and are worth learning as shortcuts, even though most nouns still require rote memorization.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| German | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| der Tisch | dair tish | the table |
| die Lampe | dee LAHM-peh | the lamp |
| das Buch | dahs bookh | the book |
| der Mann | dair mahn | the man |
| die Frau | dee frow | the woman |
| das Kind | dahs kint | the child |
| der Stuhl | dair shtool | the chair |
| die Tür | dee tewr | the door |
| das Fenster | dahs FEN-ster | the window |
| die Sonne | dee ZON-neh | the sun |