Some Hints on How to Guess Gender



Some Hints on How to Guess Gender

|der |

|Male people, male animals |der Mann, der Professor, der Polizist, der Hund, der Stier |

|Many instruments/things that do things: |der Computer, der Toaster, der Kugelschreiber |

| |(when these words end in -er or -or) |

|Days, months, seasons, most weather elements |der Tag, der Freitag, der September, der Winter |

| |der Schnee, der Regen, der Nebel [=fog] |

|Points on the compass: |der Norden, der Süden, der Osten, der Westen |

|Makes (names) of cars: |der Volkswagen/der VW, der Porsche, der Toyota |

| |BUT NOTE: das Auto |

|Most non-German rivers |der Mississippi, der Mekong, der Nil, der Amazonas |

|Nouns ending in… | |

|-ig |der Honig [=honey], der Käfig [=cage] |

|-ling |der Schwächling [=weakling] |

|-ant |der Elefant, der Lieferant [=supplier] |

|-us |der Idealismus, der Kommunismus, der Zirkus |

|Most nouns ending in -en |der Garten, der Hafen [=harbour], der Ofen [=oven] |

|die |

|Female people (except: das Mädchen, das Fräulein--see "Neuter" below),|die Frau, die Professorin, die Polizistin, die Kuh, die Gans |

|female animals |[==> plurals: die Professorinnen, die Polizistinnen] |

|Note: When these nouns end in -in, they will form plurals ending in | |

|-innen | |

|Most German rivers |die Donau, die Mosel, die Elbe, die Weser, die Oder |

| |BUT NOTE: der Rhein, der Main |

|Most nouns ending in -e |BUT NOTE: der Käse, der Name, das Ende, das Auge, der Affe [and other |

|Note: die-nouns ending in -e will form plurals in -en |animals], der Biologe [and other male job designations], der Kunde |

| |[=customer] |

|Nouns ending in… | |

|Note: Nouns with these endings will add | |

|-en to form the plural | |

|-ei |die Bücherei (library), die Datei (file [on a computer]) |

|-schaft |die Freundschaft [=friendship]; die Wirtschaft [=economy; also means |

| |"pub"!] |

|-heit/ -keit |die Dummheit [=stupidity], die Schwierigkeit [=difficulty] |

|-ung |die Landung [=landing], die Bedeutung [=meaning] |

|-tät |die Universität, die Elektrizität |

|-ion |die Situation, die Religion, die Funktion |

|-ik |die Panik, die Logik, die Ethik, die Symbolik, die Mechanik |

|-ie |die Philosophie, die Biologie, die Monotonie, die Magie |

|-enz/ -anz |die Frequenz, die Toleranz, die Diskrepanz |

|-ur |die Kultur, die Prozedur, die Natur |

|das |

|Human and animal babies / kids |das Baby, das Kind, das Kalb, das Lamm [der Junge] |

|Most metals |das Gold, das Kupfer, das Silber, das Nickel, das Kadmium |

|Verb infinitives turned into nouns |das Leben [=life], das Schwimmen (as in: Swimming is fun) |

|Collectives with Ge- (but note this is overridden by endings such as |das Gebäude [=building], das Gebirge [=mountain range], das Geschrei |

|-schaft in die Gesellschaft) |[=screaming], das Gebüsch [=bushes] |

|Nouns w. diminutive suffixes: -chen, -lein (and their dialect forms: |das Kindlein, das Mädchen, das Hartmutchen (and das Häusle, das Kasperle |

|-le, -erl, -el, -li) |etc.) |

|This is why das Mädchen and das Fräulein are neuter, and not "die" | |

|These nouns will be unchanged in the plural: das Mädchen, die Mädchen | |

|Nouns ending in -ment or -(i)um |das Experiment, das Museum, das Datum, das Opium |

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download