Nomen.
Every noun has a gender.
A German noun is always capitalized. Every single one, not just proper names. And every noun carries a grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter. That gender is not decoration. It determines the article the noun takes, and it follows the noun into every case in the sentence.
Always capitalized
In English, only proper nouns are capitalized. In German, all nouns are. This makes nouns easy to spot in a sentence: any word with a capital letter that is not at the start of a sentence is a noun.
- DerMann liestdasBuch. (The man reads the book.)
- Ich trinkeKaffee und esseBrot. (I drink coffee and eat bread.)
- DieArbeit machtSpaß. (The work is fun.)
Capitalization is one of the most useful signals in German. Any time you are unsure whether a word is a noun, the capital letter tells you immediately.
Three genders: der, die, das
Every German noun has one of three grammatical genders. Masculine nouns take the article der. Feminine nouns take die. Neuter nouns take das. The gender is a property of the noun itself. It must be learned alongside the noun.
| Gender | Article | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | der | derMann | the man |
| Masculine | der | derTisch | the table |
| Feminine | die | dieFrau | the woman |
| Feminine | die | dieSprache | the language |
| Neuter | das | dasKind | the child |
| Neuter | das | dasBuch | the book |
The article is the most reliable signal of gender. Learning a noun always means learning it with its article: not just Tisch but derTisch. Not just Sprache but dieSprache.
Gender patterns worth knowing
While there is no single rule that assigns gender to every noun, certain endings are strong indicators. These patterns cover a large portion of common vocabulary.
| Ending | Usually | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| -ung | die (fem.) | dieMeinung, dieWohnung, dieÜbung |
| -heit / -keit | die (fem.) | dieFreiheit, dieMöglichkeit |
| -schaft | die (fem.) | dieFreundschaft, dieMannschaft |
| -tion / -sion | die (fem.) | dieNation, diePension |
| -er (agent) | der (masc.) | derLehrer, derFahrer, derArbeiter |
| -ismus | der (masc.) | derTourismus, derRealismus |
| -chen / -lein | das (neut.) | dasMädchen, dasBrötchen, dasFräulein |
| -ment | das (neut.) | dasDokument, dasInstrument |
These are patterns, not rules. Exceptions exist. But knowing them reduces the guesswork significantly when encountering new vocabulary.
Gender follows the noun into every case
Gender is not just about the article in the Nominativ. It travels with the noun through all four cases → Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ, and Genitiv. The article changes form accordingly.
| Case | der Mann (masc.) | die Frau (fem.) | das Kind (neut.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominativ | derMann | dieFrau | dasKind |
| Akkusativ | denMann | dieFrau | dasKind |
| Dativ | demMann | derFrau | demKind |
| Genitiv | desMannes | derFrau | desKindes |
This is why gender matters. It is not about the noun in isolation. It is about how the noun functions in every sentence it appears in. The article is always doing work: it signals gender, case, and number simultaneously.
For the full picture on how articles change across all four cases: der, die, das. Articles and the four cases. For nouns made of several smaller nouns, see Komposita. The last word decides everything.
Plural: always die
In the plural, gender disappears. All German nouns (masculine, feminine, and neuter) take the article die in the Nominativ and Akkusativ plural. The noun itself often changes form too, but the article is always die.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| derMann | dieMänner |
| dieFrau | dieFrauen |
| dasKind | dieKinder |
German nouns are always capitalized. Every noun has a gender: masculine → der, feminine → die, or neuter → das. That gender must be learned with the noun. It is not decoration: gender determines the article form across all four cases. In the plural, all genders take die.