Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In German language, there are three definite articles for nouns in singular: der for
masculine nouns, die for feminine nouns and das neutral nouns. German native
speakers know mostly intuitively what the article of each noun is. However, non-native
speakers need to memorize the articles. There are several rules and guidelines
determining the articles of some categories of nouns. But beware exceptions.
Furthermore, nouns with the suffixes below have the article der:
Most of nouns with the following suffixes have the article der:
Beware: this is applicable only to nouns in singular. All nouns in plural have the article die.
Beware: diminutives have always the article das: der Kopf → das Köpfchen.
Furthermore, nouns with the suffixes below have the article die:
–falt: Vielfalt;
–heit: Freiheit, Sicherheit;
–keit: Möglichkeit, Schnelligkeit;
–schaft: Freundschaft, Mannschaft;
–t (nouns derived from verbs): Fahrt, Tat;
–ung: Leitung, Zeitung;
Foreign nouns with the suffixes below have the article die:
Most of nouns with the following suffixes have the article die:
Beware: diminutives have always the article das: die Hand → das Händchen.
Almost all of the 112 known chemical elements: Aluminium, Kupfer, Uran;
6 exceptions: der Kohlenstoff, der Sauerstoff, der Stickstoff, der Wasserstoff, der
Phosphor, der Schwefel;
Names of metals: Blei, Messing, Zinn;
exceptions: die Bronze, der Stahl;
Fractions: Drittel (⅓), Viertel (¼);
exception: die Hälfte (½);
Furthermore, nouns with the suffixes below have the article das:
Most of nouns with the following suffixes have the article das:
der Band (hardcover book), die Band (music group), das Band (tape);
der Lama (buddhist priest), das Lama (animal);
der Kiwi (bird), die Kiwi (fruit);