Community, friendship, landscape, economy, these big concepts all share one ending → -schaft. And they're all die with no exceptions.
The rule
Every noun built with the suffix -schaft is feminine. The suffix typically describes a collective, a relationship, a state, or a territory. Whatever it refers to, the article is always die.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| dieFreundschaft | friendship |
| dieMannschaft | team |
| dieGesellschaft | society / company |
| dieWirtschaft | economy |
| dieLandschaft | landscape |
| dieGemeinschaft | community |
| dieWissenschaft | science |
| dieEigenschaft | property / characteristic |
What -schaft actually means
The suffix -schaft comes from an old Germanic root meaning "condition" or "state of being." It turns nouns and adjectives into words that describe a group, a bond, or an abstract condition shared by people or things. Freund (friend) becomes Freundschaft. Wirt (host, innkeeper) becomes Wirtschaft. The meaning expands; the article stays die.
This also means you can often build new words yourself. Bruder (brother) → die Bruderschaft (brotherhood, fraternity). Kamerad + -schaft = die Kameradschaft → feminine, as always.
Not every -schaft is the suffix
One word ends in those letters without carrying the suffix: der Schaft, the shaft or shank of a thing. It keeps its own article inside compounds too → der Stiefelschaft (boot shaft), der Gewehrschaft (gun stock). The test is the same as always: is a collective, a bond or a condition being named, or is this simply the noun Schaft?
See -schaft → it's die. The suffix signals a collective, a bond, or a shared condition. The article never changes.