Otherwise, an English loan word might take the gender of the nearest German equivalent word: der Airbag (der Sack) die Box (die Büchse)der Lift (der Aufzug) das Baby (das Kind)der Shop (der Laden) das Handy (das Telefon). Trust me on this one! :p. Heads Up: The intricacies of German don’t end there! (The pretty woman gives the poor man the little red package full of coins.). The Bachelor of Special Studies (B.S.S.) In English, we substitute gendered pronouns when talking about people (male & female) and then ‘it’ when talking about everything else, as in: How was her vacation? Still, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, remember to 1) just take it all slowly and gradually and 2) cheer yourself with the truth that this way is still infinitely better when you were memorizing what seemed like purely random gender for each individual noun! Bauer, Ingrid. German Studies. There is an Explosion! IF the suffixes -al, -an, -ar, -är, -at, -ent, -ett, -ier, -iv-, -o, -on are used to refer to male persons, they take the masculine: der Student, der Militär (military man), der Kanadier (male Canadian). list of suffixes and other forms connected with neuter noun gender (click for examples and common exceptions): das Mädchen (girl), das Fräulein (young woman, miss), das Dickicht (thicket), das Ventil (valve), das Dynamit (dynamite), das Schema (schematic), das Experiment, das Viertel (quarter), das Christentum (christianity), das Museum, das Individuum (individual), der Profit, der Granit, die Firma (company), der Zement (cement), der Reichtum (wealth), der Irrtum (error), das Gesetz (law), das Gespräch (conversation), das Gebäude (building), der Gedanke (thought), der Geschmack (taste), and approx. Global Development Studies (GDS) History. HEADS UP: Forming German plurals is also a bit trickier and also is very connected to the form of the singular noun (click for more). At Colorado State, there are two primary methods to explore your passions: majors and concentrations. Why not just pick one — like our English ‘the’ — and use that? ), das Baby, das Kind (child), das Ferkel (piglet), das Fohlen (foal), das Lamm (lamb). You look above to see a BLUE Hand materialize that is going to perform Chirurgie (surgery) on the pulsating walls of your Bücherei. Finally, there are so many English loan words that we need to deal with those gender patterns separately. Guide to German Plural Nouns with -er Endings, Learn About German Plural Nouns With -n and -en endings, An English Grammar Guide to Using Adjectives Correctly, A Guide to German Plural Nouns With -e Endings, Learn the Difference Between "Sehr" and "Viel" in German, Countries, Nationalities and Languages in English, Explanation and Examples of Wo and Da in German. When applicable, English loan words will take whatever gender is associated with the same suffix (or whatever suffix is pronounced the same way, even if spelled differently): der Computer (-er is generally a masculine ending)der Rotor (-or is a masculine ending)die City, die Party, die Lobby, die Story (-ie is a feminine ending; pronounced the same! It contains the most important and most frequently used German words. I’m going to walk you through how you can more easily figure out a noun’s gender based on … ready for this? But you have a shriveling Krankheit (sickness) that makes you shrink and shrivel like a prune (not so much Eleganz anymore!). (Read more in the Noun Outliers section. Economics. A language (e.g. Ah! A major is the degree you will earn at graduation, while a concentration focuses on a specific field of study related to a major, though not every major has a concentration. As you can see, German noun gender is important!When learning a noun in German, it’s crucial to attach the noun to its gender. Use the list below to get more information on majors, minors, and the departments and programs that administer them. , driver) are most often transformed into the female version by adding and -in: ). Generally speaking, countries in German are not preceded by definite articles. General Catalog Marriott Library, Suite 1705F 295 South 1500 East Salt Lake City, UT 84112 © 2021 The University of Utah Memorizing the gender each and every noun would be mighty-hard to do. As you’re just getting started with German, it’s a good idea to memorize the gender for each isolated noun. Even when you learn an abstract noun such as die Freiheit (freedom), you can still think in images — imagine you’ve been freed from prison. It is the only official language in Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein. There are a lot of exceptions to all the rules (they are often logical if you come at them from a different angle, though); however, the noun group and forms rules will guide you true a good 80% of the time, which is still loads better than when you thought German noun gender was completely without rhyme or reason! French and Arabic. Even though it might feel a little painful or pointless at first, trust me — you need to learn German genders properly and well if you truly want to speak German. Something like noun gender is the ‘grammar frosting’ — it helps hold the ideas together. That’s right! and see those items as the corresponding gender color. Isn’t that going to be complicated? metals are usually neuter). Not an important aspect of English. Our 74 majors, minors and interdisciplinary programs provide broad exposure to diverse thought and deep exploration within your fields of interest. In any case, that’s what we’ll tell ourselves to make us feel better as we delve into German noun gender. Note that the pronoun ich (‘I’) has no initial capital in German, but Sie can function just fine without so much ‘grammar frosting’, but some might argue that noun gender — in all its intricacies — adds a depth of grammatical character. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/gender-of-countries-1444446. In this section, we’ll explore various noun groups & noun forms associated with one gender over the others. She’s a real beauty!”), which is one of the rare instances in English that we might use gendered pronouns for anything other than people. Blume (flower): Sie ist eine Tulpe. die Arktis (Artic), die Antarktis (Antarctica), die Schweiz (Switzerland) and other provinces or countries, including those that end in -a, -e, -ei, and -ie (e.g. East Asian Studies. College of Letters & Sciences Laurentide Hall 4100 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 800 W. Main Street Whitewater, WI 53190-1790. You may find some other words that seem to break the rules for noun forms, but, really, are shortened words that take the gender of the full form, for example: der Akku (Akkumulator) battery [-or is a masc. The gender changes for some other nouns (often, but not always, also foreign in origin) based on region (e.g. Nouns can be lumped together according to: Read below in the ‘Digging Deeper’ section for many examples (and exceptions) to these noun group & noun form rules! Gender of Countries . can function just fine without so much ‘grammar frosting, Airplane, motorcycle, & ship makes/models/names, Rivers within Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Continents, cities, provinces, and most countries, Gerunds, colors, languages, English -ing forms and other parts of speech used as nouns, Hotels, cafes, restaurants, and movie theaters, -a, -anz, -enz, -ei, -ie, -heit, -keit, -ik, -sion, -tion, -sis, -tät, -ung, -ur, schaft, -in OR -frau denoting the female counterpart to a male person, most nouns (coming from verbs) ending in -t, -chen, -lein, -icht, -il, -it, -ma, -ment, -tel, -tum, -um, most nouns that start with the prefix Ge-, -al, -an, -ar, -är, -at, -ent, -ett, -ier, -iv-, -o, -on (foreign loan words for objects), nouns that defy the typical rules for groups, forms, and compounds, foreign-word nouns for which gender hasn’t (yet) been firmly established, nouns with varying gender based on the context and/or region, nouns with double (or triple!) There are many topics — weather, numbers, minerals — that are closely associated with just one of the three genders, with limited exceptions. It’s a stretch for our brains to think in this new, ‘gendered noun’ way. We’ll study major events in global LGBTQ history, investigate local histories of queer and transgender people and communities, and consider how LGBTQ histories have helped shape broader conversations about civil rights, equality, and justice. © 2020 German with Laura  |  All Rights Reserved  |  Privacy, 1711 Kings Way Onawa, IA 51040 |  (603) 303-8842  |  [email protected]. Other than that, English doesn’t have noun gender. pairing the new German noun to an image of that person / object in your mind) vs. translating into English, you will be well on your way to true fluency.Example: when you learn der Tisch, see a RED table in your mind. It's easiest to simply memorize which gender is associated with which country in the German language as you learn the spellings of the countries themselves. (‘He’ [It] is brand-new. Pick three contrasting colors for the masculine, feminine, and neuter. By training yourself this way, you will nurture a ‘German brain’ which you’ll be able to switch over to from your ‘English brain’ with the ease of turning a light on or off. Education. -ung is feminine) OR because it belongs to a noun group associated with a particular gender (e.g. When stating that someone is from a certain city, often the suffix –er/ erin will be added: Berlin -> ein Berliner, eine BerlinerinKöln (Cologne)-> ein Kölner, eine KölnerinTo state that someone is from a certain country, see Countries and Cities in GermanTo some cities that already end in –er, you can add –aner/ anerin: ein Hannoveraner, eine HannoveranerinHowever, that is quite a mouthful, therefore it is more commonly expressed as such: Sie/ Er kommt aus Hannover. gives you the opportunity to design your own degree. … how the word is spelled. German goes them one better and adds a third gender: neuter. : die Seine, die Themse (Thames), die Wolga, der Diamant, der Granit, der Lehm (clay), der Quarz, der Ton (cement), das Erz (ore), die Kohle (coal), die Kreide (chalk), das Mineral (mineral), der Taifun (typhoon), der Wind, der Frost, der Nebel (fog), die Brise (breeze), das Eis (ice), das Gewitter (thunderstorm), die Graupel(hail), das Wetter (weather), die Witterung (atmospheric conditions).