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.

Gender, articles, and nouns 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 genders 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

Gender, articles, and nouns Nouns ending with -in that refer to people are always feminine. Other feminine noun endings include -ei, -heit, -schaft, -ung, and -tät. die Freundin the (female) friend die Studentin the (female) student die Professorin the (female) professor die Bäckerei the bakery die Freundschaft the friendship die Universität the university

Gender, articles, and nouns ACHTUNG Nouns ending with -chen are always neuter.

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

Gender, articles, and nouns The definite article die is used with all plural nouns, regardless of gender. SINGULAR PLURAL MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER der Tisch die Tür das Fenster die Tische die Türen die Fenster the tables the doors the windows 

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

Gender, articles, and nouns There is no plural form of the indefinite article.  Er ist ein Mann. He is a man. Sie sind Männer. They are men.

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 + das Hemd shirt = das Nachthemd nightshirt

Gender, articles, and nouns The gender and number of a compound noun is determined by the last noun in the compound.