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Nouns ending in -heit, -keit, or -igkeit are always feminine: Freiheit, Möglichkeit, Geschwindigkeit, and hundreds more.
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Nouns ending in -ung are feminine, and most of them are built from a verb. No other feminine suffix in German is as common.
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The diminutive -chen makes any noun neuter, including das Mädchen. Words like der Kuchen and der Knochen only end in those letters.
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Every noun ending in -schaft is feminine, whatever it means: Gemeinschaft, Freundschaft, Landschaft, Wirtschaft.
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Nouns ending in -ling are masculine, whether they name a season, an animal, or a person. The only exception is die Reling.
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Hundreds of nouns from Latin and French end in -ion. There are no exceptions with -tion or -sion, and six with plain -ion, like das Stadion.
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German borrowed hundreds of nouns in -ität from Latin, and every one of them is feminine: Qualität, Universität, Kreativität.
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Nouns ending in -ment came into German from Latin, and almost all of them are neuter. The exceptions are der Moment and der Zement.
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Nouns ending in -tum are neuter. Few native German endings settle the article this reliably. The exceptions are der Reichtum and der Irrtum.
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Natur, Kultur, Struktur, and Temperatur are all feminine. The few that are not, like das Abitur and der Flur, only end in the same letters.
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Musik, Politik, Technik, and Mathematik are feminine, and so is almost every other noun in -ik. One of the few exceptions is das Mosaik.
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Add -in to a masculine noun for a person or an animal, and the feminine form takes die: der Lehrer becomes die Lehrerin.
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Most nouns ending in -e are feminine. No other single pattern covers as many German nouns, and the exceptions fit on a short list.
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Add -er to a verb and you get a masculine noun for the person who does it: der Lehrer, der Fahrer, der Sprecher.
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All twelve months and all four seasons are masculine. One rule covers der Januar, der März, der Sommer, and the rest of the year.
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All seven days of the week are masculine: der Montag, der Dienstag, der Mittwoch, and the rest. The months follow the same rule.
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A brand name has no gender of its own. It takes the article of the noun hidden behind it, and that noun is different for each kind of product.
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Every car brand is masculine: der BMW, der Audi, der Mercedes, der Opel. The noun hidden behind them all is der Wagen.
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Every motorcycle brand is feminine: die Honda, die Yamaha, die Ducati. The noun hidden behind them is die Maschine.
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However many pieces a German compound is built from, the last one decides the gender, the plural, and the suffix rule.
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sein, werden, and bleiben never take an object. What comes after them stays in the Nominativ, the same case as the subject.
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sein does two jobs: it links a subject to what it is, and it builds the Perfekt for verbs of movement and change.
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werden means to become, and it also builds the future tense and the passive voice. All three uses share one set of forms.
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bleiben is the third copula verb. It links a subject to the state it stays in, and its Perfekt takes sein rather than haben.
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durch, gegen, für, ohne, um, and bis always send the noun after them into the Akkusativ. The sentence around them makes no difference.
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mit, bei, zu, von, nach, seit, aus, and gegenüber always take the Dativ, whatever the verb in the sentence is.
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wegen, trotz, während, and the rest of this small group always take the Genitiv. They belong mostly to written and formal German.
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Every German preposition fixes the case of the noun after it: Akkusativ, Dativ, or Genitiv. Only the two-way group depends on the verb.
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Nine prepositions, among them in, an, and auf, take Dativ or Akkusativ. Wo? points to the Dativ, Wohin? to the Akkusativ.
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zu means “to” and feels like movement, so learners expect Akkusativ. Both zu and aus are fixed Dativ prepositions.
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