German Grammar: Gender of a noun (Der, Die, Das)

Each German noun demands a case. This noun can be masculine, feminine or neutral. In this post I will be listing some of the hints that indicate whether a noun is masculine, feminine or Neutral.

If a noun is Masculine..

• Months, days and seasons all take the masculine 'der'.. e.g der Januar, der Montag
• Jobs with a masculine connotation take 'der' e.g der Koch, der Artzt
• Alcoholic drinks normally take 'der'... e.g der Wein
• Words that come from verbs e.g der Besuch
• and the following endings on words normally indicate that you should use 'der'

- and/ant
- ent
- et
- eur
- ismus
- ist
- or
- ling
- er

If a noun is Feminine..

• Words that come from verbs ending in t normally are feminine
• words with the following endings are normally feminine

- ei
- heit
- keit
- in
- ion
- schaft
- tät
- ung
- ur
- ie
- e
If a noun is Neutral..

• Words from the infinitive of the verb will take 'das' e.g das Essen
• Adjectives as words e.g das böse
• International words e.g das Hotel, Das Auto
• and words with the following endings

- chen
- lein
- ma
- um
- ment