German Articles Part 1

We use nouns for people, objects, things or ideas. Nouns are normally (not always) preceded by an article. Nouns are always written with a capital letter in German.

In German we have three main articles:

der (masculine), die (feminine) and das (neuter).

For example: - der Mann (the man) - die Frau (the woman) - das Tier (the animal)

The articles change depending on - the gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) - the number (singular or plural) - and the case (nominative, genitive, dative and accusative)

The different forms can be: der, die, das, des, dem and den depending on gender, number and case. We are going to show how to handle the articles step by step so don't worry. This site is only part 1.

The Gender
The best method to get familiar to the articles is by listening a lot to the German language. We don't recommend learning words by heart but if you like to memorize words you should never learn just the nouns! Always try to remember also the main articles der, die and das. The grammatical gender does not follow a logical set of rules but there are some noun endings which give us a hint. But be careful, it does not always work! By the way, have a look at the English endings too. A lot of English and German words are similar.

The article: "der" (masculine)

-ling der Hftling (the prisoner) der Frhling (the spring) der Flchtling (the refugee) der Sugling (the infant) der Lehrling (the apprentice) der Zwilling (the twin)

-ist der Optimist (the optimist) der Pianist (the pianist) der Polizist (the policeman) der Spezialist (the specialist)

-or der Humor (the humor) der Doktor (the doctor) der Tresor (the safe) der Professor (the professor) der Motor (the motor)

-ismus der Egoismus (the egoism) der Tourismus (the tourism) der Pazifismus (the pacifism)

-er der Hrer (the receiver) der Jger (the hunter) der Kfer (the bug, the beetle)

der Krper (the body) der Tiger (the tiger) der Bcker (the baker) der Donner (the thunder)

The article: "die" (feminine)

-keit die Mdigkeit (the tiredness) die Sigkeit (the sweetness, the candy) die Fhigkeit (the ability) die Hufigkeit (the frequency) die Flssigkeit (the liquid, the fluid) die Geschwindigkeit (the speed, the velocity) die Frhlichkeit (the joyfulness)

-ion die Portion (the portion) die Region (the region) die Station (the station) die Reaktion (the reaction) die Situation (the situation) die Nation (the nation) die Tradition (the tradition)

-schaft die Erbschaft (the inheritance , the heritage) die Landschaft (the landscape, the countryside) die Kundschaft (the customers, the clientele) die Wissenschaft (the science) die Eigenschaft (the characteristic) die Freundschaft (the friendship) die Gesellschaft (the society)

-heit

die Feigheit (the cowardice) die Schnheit (the beauty) die Klugheit (the cleverness) die Bldheit (the stupidity) die Dummheit (the foolishness)

-enz die Intelligenz (the intelligence) die Konsequenz (the consequence) die Frequenz (the frequency) die Existenz (the existence) die Differenz (the difference) die Tendenz (the tendency)

-tt die Normalitt (the normality) die Spezialitt (the speciality) die Elektrizitt (the electricity) die Flexibilitt (the flexibility) die Kontinuitt (the continuity)

-ung die nderung (the change) die Abteilung (the department) die Einladung (the invitation) die Anleitung (the instruction) die Forschung (the research)

The article: "das" (neuter)

-nis das Schulzeugnis (the school certificate) das Gedchtnis (the memory) das Erlebnis (the experience) das Geheimnis (the secret) das Hindernis (the obstacle)

-ment das Dokument (the document) das Sortiment (the assortment) das Zement (the cement) das Komplement (the complement) das Medikament (the medication, the medicine) das Instrument (the instrument)

-lein / -chen Sometimes these endings are used to belittle a noun. der Vogel (the bird) => das Vgelchen (the little bird, the birdie) das Buch (the book) => das Bchlein (the booklet)

Compound words
By the way if you have a compound word, the gender of the compound word matches the gender of the last (right) word. Example der Wind + die Mhle = die Windmhle (the windmill) das Spiel + der Platz = der Spielplatz (the playground) die Frage + das Zeichen = das Fragezeichen (the question mark)