The most common feminine suffix in German. -ung is everywhere, and it's always die. You see the ending, you know the article.
The rule
Every noun built with the suffix -ung is feminine. That makes it always die. And because this suffix is one of the most productive in the language, recognizing it hands you hundreds of correct articles at once.
The bonus: most come from verbs
Here's what makes -ung especially useful: almost every one of these nouns was built from a verb you already know or will learn. The pattern is verb stem + -ung = feminine noun. Once you see it, you can often guess new words before you've ever encountered them.
| Verb | Noun | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| lösen (to solve) | dieLösung | solution |
| meinen (to think/mean) | dieMeinung | opinion |
| erfahren (to experience) | dieErfahrung | experience |
| wohnen (to live/reside) | dieWohnung | flat / apartment |
| üben (to practice) | dieÜbung | exercise / practice |
| erklären (to explain) | dieErklärung | explanation |
| bedeuten (to mean/signify) | dieBedeutung | meaning / significance |
| ordnen (to order/sort) | dieOrdnung | order / tidiness |
What this means in practice
When you meet a new noun built from a verb plus -ung, you don't need to look it up to know the article. The suffix tells you. And because most of these nouns come from verbs, you often already know the meaning too, you just didn't know the noun form yet.
Every new -ung noun you meet comes with its article already solved.
Not every -ung is the suffix
A few nouns end in those three letters without being built that way. There is no verb stem plus -ung in front: the ending is simply part of the word, so the gender is its own.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| derSprung | jump, crack |
| derSchwung | momentum, swing |
| derUrsprung | origin |
| derAufschwung | upturn, boost |
| derDung | manure |
The test is the same one the verb rule already gives you: ask whether a verb is sitting in front of the ending. lösen is in Lösung, üben is in Übung. In Sprung there is no spring- + -ung, only an old vowel change, which is why it keeps its own article.
See -ung → it's die. And the verb it came from is usually right there inside the word, telling you the meaning at the same time.