Der, Die, Das: Genders of German Nouns Explained

Guten Tag! Today we're going to be focusing on the gender of nouns. Did you know that all nouns in German have capital letters? This makes them easy to spot in a sentence. In German, nouns fall into three groups. The first group are called masculine nouns, the second group are called feminine nouns, and the third group are called neuter nouns. In the dictionary you can see what the gender of a noun is by using the symbols in front of or after the word. NM or MASC refer to masculine nouns, NF or FEM are feminine nouns, and NN or NEUT refer to neuter nouns. Now the word for the and an changes depending on the gender of the noun and whether the noun is plural or singular. Here are the words for the. For plural nouns we use die. Let's take a look at some example phrases. Mann is a masculine noun as is Kuli pen, so we use die with these words. Here are two examples of feminine nouns. Frau is a feminine noun and Tastatur, computer keyboard, is also regarded as a feminine noun, so we use die. Lastly, here are two examples of neuter nouns. Das Mädchen. Das Mädchen. Das Lineal. Das Lineal. So as you can see, Mädchen, girl, is a neuter noun as is Lineal, ruler, so we use das with these nouns. Let's do a speaking practice of these phrases. Der Mann. Der Kuli. Die Frau. Die Tastatur. Das Mädchen. Das Lineal. That was great, well done. Here are the words for are an. Ein. Eine. Ein. So as you can see, are an article is the same for masculine and neuter nouns. Let's take a look at some example phrases. So these are all the same nouns we saw earlier and we've used either ein or eine depending on the nouns are masculine, feminine or neuter. Okay, so let's now do a speaking practice of these phrases. Ein Mann. Ein Kuli. Eine Frau. Eine Tastatur. Ein Mädchen. Ein Lineal. Excellent job, well done. Can you work out the gender of these nouns and find the right words for the, or are, or an? Fantastic job today, well done. Today we have learned that German nouns fall into three groups which we call masculine, feminine and neuter. We have also seen that the words for the, and are, and change depending on the gender of each noun. Do make sure to take the quiz right after this lesson to check your understanding of what you have learned. Auf Wiedersehen.