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 ending in -ung is feminine. That makes it always die. And because this suffix is one of the most productive in the language, recognising 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 practise) | 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 ending in -ung, you don't need to look it up to know the article. The ending 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.
This is the kind of pattern that doesn't just help you remember one word. Every new -ung noun you meet comes with its article already solved.
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.