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

2. 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

3. ♂ 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

4. 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!!

5. Ⓛ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

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