Deutsch 1 Frau Spampinato Gender of German Nouns Deutsch 1 Frau Spampinato

Just a quick look at nouns… What is a noun? __________________________________ German Nouns: The 1st letter of all nouns is always CAPITALIZED: z.B. → der Bruder die Stadt das Kind All nouns in German have a gender This is a grammatical gender that doesn’t always have anything to do with whether or not the word means a male or female person Person, place, thing, idea, or concept

♂ The Genders! ♀ There are 3 genders in German: Masculine, feminine, and neuter The gender of nouns is not easily identified by the way a word looks in German Must study the definite article that is listed with the word on the list--der/die/das = the z.B. → der → the → masculine → der Bruder, der Wohnort die → the → feminine → die Familie, die Adresse, die Mutter das → the → neuter → das Kind, das Land, das Mädchen

Genders Continued… There are a few patterns for recognizing which words are which gender z.B.: many words that end in “-e” are frequently feminine, but this is not always the case z.B. → der Junge (the boy) The patterns have too many exceptions to the rules, so it is better to just learn the gender when you first learn the word! **The gender of nouns plays an important role in German, and it is imperative that you learn them now!!

Ⓛet’s Ⓟractice! Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the definite article! ☺#s1~10 der ___ Sonntag ___ Opa ___ Stadt ___ Telefon ___ Uhr der ___ Großvater ___ Tante ___ Rockgruppe ___ Kaufhaus ___ Eltern der die die die das das die die

Gute Arbeit! Wir sind fertig!! Created by Hannah Newman for Frau Spampinato Herbst 2008☺