Hundreds of German nouns are borrowed straight from Latin or French. They all end in -ion, and almost all of them are die. With -tion and -sion there is no exception at all. Plain -ion has six worth knowing.
The rule
Nearly every noun ending in -ion is feminine, so the article is die → in the Nominativ, and in every case that follows. The suffix comes from Latin -io and French -ion, and the feminine gender came with it into German. Where the word ends in -tion or -sion, the rule holds without a single exception. Plain -ion is where the exceptions live.
Eight words you've probably seen before:
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| dieNation | nation |
| dieFunktion | function |
| dieVersion | version |
| dieMission | mission |
| dieEmotion | emotion |
| dieTradition | tradition |
| diePortion | portion / serving |
| dieSituation | situation |
The whole family: -tion, -sion, -ion
The suffix appears in three forms, depending on the word's origin. Two of them are watertight; the third is the one to look at twice:
- -tion → die Lektion (lesson), die Produktion (production), die Reaktion (reaction)
- -sion → die Version (version), die Dimension (dimension), die Explosion (explosion)
- -ion without -t or -s → die Region (region), die Union (union), die Religion (religion)
All three end the same way when spoken. For -tion and -sion the feminine gender holds for every word. For plain -ion it follows almost every one. The next section has the rest.
The six exceptions
All six have one thing in common: their -ion is not the Latin suffix, it only looks like it. Learn these, and the rule carries you the rest of the way.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| dasStadion | stadium |
| dasIon | ion (physics) |
| derSpion | spy |
| derSkorpion | scorpion |
| derChampion | champion (from English) |
| derLampion | paper lantern (from French) |
Every one of them is a plain -ion. Not a single -tion or -sion word appears on this list, and that is exactly the point.
Why this is especially useful
Many -ion words look nearly identical to their English or French counterparts. Situation, Tradition, Emotion, Dimension: the meaning is often transparent on first sight. That makes -ion one of the most productive patterns for building vocabulary fast: you already know hundreds of these words. Now you also know their article: die, and for the -tion and -sion words without a single exception.
See -tion or -sion → it's die, with no exception. See a plain -ion → it's die too, unless it is one of the six on this page.