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GENDER RULE

Is it a month?
It's always der.

JUNE 20264 MIN READARTICLES · GENDER PATTERNSBY LUCA SOTGIA🇬🇧🇺🇦🇹🇷🇻🇳🇵🇱🇪🇸
Nominativ Akkusativ Dativ GenitivDualNeutral

All twelve months in German are masculine, every single one, with no exceptions, no edge cases, and nothing to check. You know it's a month, you know the article is der.

The rule

Every month is masculine. That means der in the Nominativ, and the masculine forms follow through every case. You never need to check. The category itself determines the article.

MonthEnglish
derJanuarJanuary
derFebruarFebruary
derMärzMarch
derAprilApril
derMaiMay
derJuniJune
derJuliJuly
derAugustAugust
derSeptemberSeptember
derOktoberOctober
derNovemberNovember
derDezemberDecember

The seasons too

The pattern extends to the seasons. All four are masculine as well derFrühling (spring), derSommer (summer), derHerbst (autumn), derWinter (winter). No exceptions there either.

Months, days, seasons: if it marks a point in time on the calendar, German almost always reaches for masculine. It's not a rule you derive, it's a pattern you recognise, and once you've seen it, it stops being something you think about at all.

In conversation

Most of the time you'll hear months like this: in + dem January (= im Januar), in + dem February (= im Februar), in + dem March (= im März). That im is a contraction of in and dem. That's Dativ. And Dativ is exactly what you'd expect: der becomes dem, just like every other masculine noun.

You know it's a month, so you know it's der, for all twelve months and all four seasons, no checking and no guessing required.

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