LEKTION 1A
Strukturen
1A.1 Gender, articles, and nouns
Startblock Like English nouns, German nouns can be
either singular or plural and may be preceded by a definite
or indefinite article. Unlike English nouns, all German
nouns have a gender. German nouns are always
capitalized, regardless of where they appear in a sentence.
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1A.1-1
LEKTION 1A
Strukturen
1A.1 Gender, articles, and nouns
Gender
• All German nouns have a gender: masculine, feminine, or
neuter. While most nouns referring to males are masculine
and most nouns referring to females are feminine, the
gender of nouns representing objects and ideas need to
be memorized.
MASCULINE
FEMININE
NEUTER
der Mann
the man
die Frau
the woman
das Buch
the book
der Junge
the boy
die Blume
the flower
das Mädchen
the girl
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1A.1-2
LEKTION 1A
Strukturen
1A.1 Gender, articles, and nouns
• Nouns ending with -in that refer to people are always
feminine.
die Freundin
the (female) friend
die Studentin
the (female) student
die Professorin
the (female) professor
die Klassenkameradin
the (female) classmate
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1A.1-3
LEKTION 1A
Strukturen
1A.1 Gender, articles, and nouns
ACHTUNG
Other feminine noun endings include -ei, -heit, -schaft, -ung, and
-tät. Nouns ending with -chen are always neuter.
© 2014 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
1A.1-4
LEKTION 1A
Strukturen
1A.1 Gender, articles, and nouns
Definite and indefinite articles
• The definite article, equivalent to the in English, precedes a
noun and indicates its gender. The masculine article is der,
the feminine article is die, and the neuter article is das.
MASCULINE
FEMININE
NEUTER
der Tisch
the table
die Tür
the door
das Fenster
the window
© 2014 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
1A.1-5
LEKTION 1A
Strukturen
1A.1 Gender, articles, and nouns
• The definite article die is used with all plural nouns,
regardless of gender.
SINGULAR
MASCULINE
FEMININE
NEUTER
der Tisch
die Tür
das Fenster
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
PLURAL
die Tische
die Türen
die Fenster
the tables
the doors
the windows
1A.1-6
LEKTION 1A
Strukturen
1A.1 Gender, articles, and nouns
• The indefinite article ein(e) corresponds to a or an in
English. It precedes the noun and matches its gender.
Note that both masculine and neuter nouns take the form
ein, while feminine nouns take eine.
MASCULINE
FEMININE
NEUTER
ein Tisch
a table
eine Tür
a door
ein Fenster
a window
ein Mann
a man
eine Frau
a woman
ein Mädchen
a girl
© 2014 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
1A.1-7
LEKTION 1A
Strukturen
1A.1 Gender, articles, and nouns
• There is no plural form of the indefinite article.
Er ist ein Mann.
He is a man.
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
Sie sind Männer.
They are men.
1A.1-8
LEKTION 1A
Strukturen
1A.1 Gender, articles, and nouns
Compound nouns
• Compound words are very common in German. As in
English, two or more simple nouns can be combined to
form a compound noun.
die Nacht
night
+
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das Hemd
shirt
=
das Nachthemd
nightshirt
1A.1-9
LEKTION 1A
Strukturen
1A.1 Gender, articles, and nouns
•
The gender and number of a compound noun is
determined by the last noun in the compound.
© 2014 by Vista Higher Learning, Inc. All rights reserved.
1A.1-10