Hundreds of German nouns are borrowed straight from Latin or French. They all end in -ion, and every single one of them is die, without any exceptions.
The rule
Every noun ending in -ion is feminine. That means the article is always die → in the Nominativ, in every sentence, without exception. The suffix comes from Latin -io and French -ion, and the feminine gender came with it into German.
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, but the rule is the same for all three:
- -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. The feminine gender follows every one of them.
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 is always die.
See -ion, -tion, or -sion → it's die. The gender came with the word when it was borrowed, and it hasn't changed since.