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  • Maybe this helps. But one has to study such pages again and again. passion4teq.com/articles/der-die-das-genus-regeln – rogermue Aug 31 '15 at 13:57
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    Have a look at Cornelia Siteware cornelia.siteware.ch/grammatik/genus.html – rogermue Sep 18 '15 at 14:39
  • My spoken der,die,das,den,dem,des often congeals into some non-committal abbreviation. Better to speak and slightly wrong. – philshem Mar 31 '17 at 13:35

24 Answers 24


I'd like to add a more complete answer:

It's not the actual person, place or thing that has gender in German, but the WORD that stands for the actual thing. That's why a “car” can be either das Auto (neut.) or der Wagen (masc.) or die Karre (fem.).

After searching about noun genders, from here:

Always MASCULINE (der/ein):

  • Days, months, and seasons:
    Montag, Juli, Sommer (Monday, July, summer). The one exception is das Frühjahr, another word for der Frühling (spring), because in a compound the rightmost part always determines the gender (das Jahr).

  • Points of the compass, map locations and winds:

  • Precipitation:

  • Names of cars and trains:
    der VW, der ICE, der Mercedes (but motorbikes and aircraft are feminine).

  • Words ending in -ismus:

  • Words ending in -ner or -ler:
    Rentner, Schaffner, Zentner, Zöllner (pensioner, [train] conductor, hundred-weight, customs collector), Siedler (settler). The feminine form adds -in (die Rentnerin).

  • The basic "atmospheric" elements that end in -stoff:
    der Sauerstoff (oxygen), der Stickstoff (nitrogen), der Wasserstoff (hydrogen), plus der Kohlenstoff (carbon). The only other elements (out of 112) that are masculine are der Phosphor and der Schwefel (sulphur). Note: All of the other chemical elements are neuter (das Aluminium, Blei, Kupfer, Uran, Zink, usw.).

Always FEMININE (die/eine):


  • Nouns ending in -ie:

  • Names of aircraft, ships and motorbikes:
    die Boeing 747, die Titanic, die BMW (motorbike only; the car is der BMW). The die comes from die Maschine, which can mean plane, motorbike and engine. - Helpful reminder: ships are often referred to as “she” in English.

  • Nouns ending in -ik:
    die Grammatik, Grafik, Klinik, Musik, Panik, Physik - except das Mosaik.

  • Borrowed (foreign) nouns ending in -ade, -age, -anz, -enz, -ette, -ine, -ion, -tur:

  • Cardinal numbers:
    eine Eins, eine Drei (a one, a three)

Always NEUTER (das/ein):

  • Diminutive nouns ending in -chen or -lein:

  • Infinitives used as nouns (gerunds), ending in -en:
    das Essen, das Schreiben (eating/food, writing)

  • Almost all of the 112 known chemical elements:
    das Aluminium, Blei, Kupfer, Uran, Zink, Zinn, Zirkonium, usw. - except for six that are masculine (see above). Note: Most of the elements end in -ium, a das ending. Chemical substances ending in -in are also neuter.

  • Names of hotels, cafés and theaters:
    das Ritz, das Starbucks and das Hilton

  • Names of colors used as nouns:
    das Blau, das Rot (blue, red)

  • The letters:
    das A, das B, etc.

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    EXCEPTIONS!!!: Winds that are not male: die Bise, die Bora, die Brüscha, das Mailüfterl, die Ora, die Tramontana. Precipitations that are not male: das Kondenswasser, das Nebelnässen, das Raueis, das Schneetreiben. Cars that are not male: die Göttin (Citroën DS), die Ente (Citroën_2CV), die Isetta (BMW), die Triumph Spitfire, die Giulia und die Giulietta (both Alpha Romeo) die Plymouth Caravelle, die Isabella und die Arabella (both Borgward), die Corvette. Trains that are not male: das Krokodil. Ending in -ung but not female: der Dung. – Hubert Schölnast Sep 4 '15 at 8:05
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    All cardinal Numbers in Austrian German: Der Einser, der Zweier, der Dreier. Hotels and Cafés that are not neuter: Der Kaiserhof, der Demel – Hubert Schölnast Sep 4 '15 at 8:06


If you memorize

Der Hund
Die Rose
Das Haus

instead of



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    In addition to studying the article along with the noun, you should probably also include the plural form on your flashcards (or however you're studying). – Arthaey May 24 '11 at 20:10
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Not related to genders, but also one rule I like:

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  • -ant, -en, -en; vs. das Spant
  • -ar, -(e)s, -e; vs. -aar in das Haar; Paar and das Mobiliar; Radar; Dromedar; Exemplar; Okular; Formular; Seminar and die Bar; Schar
  • -ent, -en, -en; vs. das Talent; Präsent; Prozent
  • -eur, -s, -e;
  • -ist, -en, -en; vs. die List; Frist
  • -ius, -, -se; except das (Grad) Celsius
  • -ling, -s, -e; vs. das Recycl+ing and die Reling
  • -mus, -, men; except compounds with das Mus
  • -tor, -s, -en; except compounds with das Tor and das Kontor (but also der Kontor)


  • -anz, -, -en; vs. der Kranz; Glanz; Tanz; Schwanz, -es, ⸚en
  • -ei, -, -en; vs. der Papagei, -en/-s, -en; Brei, -(e)s, -en/-s; Schrei, -s, -en and das Blei; Geschrei, -s, (-en); Bohei; Einerlei, -s, -s
  • -elle, -, -en; vs. der Geselle, -n, -n
  • -enz, -, -en; vs. der Lenz, -es, -en
  • -ette, -, -n; vs. silent -e in das Raclette; Roulette; Baguette, -es, -es
  • -euse, -, -n;
  • -heit, -, -en; vs. sch in der Scheit
  • -ie, -, -ien; vs. diphthong in der Laie, -n, -n, exception der Sellerie, -(s), -(s) and anglicisms der Zombie, Oldie, Junkie, Collie, Hippie, Yuppie, -s, -s and das Knie, -s, -n; Genie, -s, -s
  • -ik, -, -en; vs. das Mosaik, -s, -en
  • -in, -, -nen; vs. -ein as in der Wein, das Bein, Schwein, Sein, anglicisms der Gin; Spin; Skin(head), other loan words der Rubin; Delfin; Harlekin; Zeppelin; Kamin; Termin; Urin; Mokassin; Ruin; Pinguin, das Magazin, Trampolin, chemical substances like das Kokain, Heroin, Vitamin, Benzin, Dioxin, Penicillin and gallicisms das Terrain, Bassin, Dessin, Mannequin and der Refrain
  • -ine, -, -n; vs. der Gemeine, -n, -n
  • -ion, -, -en; vs. der Spion; Skorpion
  • -ive, -, -n;
  • -keit, -, -en;
  • -schaft, -, -en; except compounds with der Schaft
  • -tät, -, -en;
  • -ung, -, -en; vs. der Nibelung, -en, -en; Sprung, -s, ⸚en; Schwung, -s, ⸚en
  • -ur, -, -en; vs. der Flur; Schwur


  • -chen, -s, -; but after single dark a, e, o or u: der Rachen, Drachen, Knochen, Rechen, Kuchen and of course sch: der Groschen
  • -ium, -s, ien;
  • -lein, -s, -;
  • -ment, -s, -e; vs. der Zement, (Piment), Moment, Konsument
  • -nis, -nisse
  • -erl
  • -tum, -er
  • infinitives, verbs when used as nouns
  • For several of these suffixes, especially the ones from loan words, there are less exceptions if one only considers complex, multi-syllable words. Some vowels may be part of a diphthong not the apparent suffix, e.g. der Lai+e not *die La+ie. Some suffixes contain another: -in F vs. -lein N, -ur F vs. -eur M, -ment N vs. -ent M. – Crissov Sep 17 '15 at 11:49
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    @FrazerKirkman: Die Finsternis, die Erkenntnis, die Fäulnis, der Kerl – Hubert Schölnast Apr 16 '17 at 9:07
  • "That does not mean that there are no exceptions!" :) – Frazer Kirkman Apr 16 '17 at 18:38
  • I built an app that teaches these rules in the context of learning the 5000 most common nouns with SRS. Android: play.google.com/store/apps/… iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/app/german-grammar-spy/… – Jack Kinsella Dec 15 '17 at 11:43



der Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän




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This visual aide seemed to work pretty fine.




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  • Especially nice for male/female pairs in combination with different cases: "Wodurch unterscheidet sich der Leiter von der Leiter? Wodurch der See von der See? Und wodurch der Mast von der Mast?" – celtschk Sep 19 '15 at 20:13


Derivation rules


wichtigste native kategorienverändernde Derivationsmorpheme des Deutschen nach Eisenberg


General rules









If someone said "Buch", I would think red.

Coincidentally, I did this with the cases, too:

Nominative case = white Accusative case = red Dative case = blue




There are some patterns:


Another rule of thumb is that abstract words are often female.















The answers I came up with are these:





Singular: der Hase, die Tochter, das Fenster

Plural: die Hasen, die Töchter, die Fenster



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This works well with other phenomenons as well.



I've analyzed the data and made a visualization that helps to guide beginners about "guessing" gender of singular German nouns.

Interactive Visulazation and notes, sources, etc

enter image description here

The bigger the text (-ung), the more common it is. The higher the text is in the chart (-keit), the more likely it is one gender.

If your singular noun ends in -ung, it's 99.33% certain to be Feminin (die). In addition, the relatively large size of -ung is due to the many nouns with that ending. One notable exception: der Sprung (the jump).

Overall, 44.5% percent of singular nouns are Feminin, 36.1% are Maskulin, and 19.3% are Neuter.

N.B. the analysis deals with the simple word ending and not suffix, which gives the diminuitive -chen not 100% Neuter. A notable example is der Kuchen.

  • The -chen ending as well as -lein from you graphics actually address diminutives, like Brötchen, Kleidchen, Hütchen. Kuchen does not belong to that group, which can be detected easily, since Ku means nothings of its own. (Ku-damm in Berlin actually abbreviates Kurfürstendamm). – guidot Dec 4 '17 at 21:23
  • yes, please see the N.B. at the bottom. – philshem Dec 5 '17 at 9:53




You need to memorize them. However, do not worry, you are going to start seeing patterns and develop your intuition and it will become natural. But for that to happen you need to memorize them. And memorizing off the pages of a dictionary is very hard and boring.

That is why I offer you this application that I developed, which makes it into a game with a pleasant color palette. I initially developed it for myself and as I saw the results I decided to share it on the internet. I do recommend it to anyone who is having problems with learning the articles to try it out: https://goo.gl/Zkdf0t


Sample of the Superhero Technique Any written rule in this thread always requires a detour via your thinking and therefore will always be less efficient.

But there is a very intuitive and scientifically proven way of learning the German genders. Watch this short video in which I explain the Superhero-Technique. The technique does not only help you to memorize a German noun's gender but also to recall it when needed intuitively.

The main idea is, as the attached picture shows, to substitute the genders (masculine / feminine / neuter) with more memorable items like e.g. a superhero (for masculine) or a queen (for feminine) or a big fat baby (for neuter). Then you need to associate those placeholders with the noun whose gender you want to learn. The image above shows a Leguan which is masculine in German. To remember the Leguan's gender you only have to associate it with a superhero. The video goes into more detail and also has practice examples to try it out instantly.


I faced the same problem regarding Genders. A simple trick: Place the tags of German genders around the house with articles. Every time some one will visit, they will ask for the same so explain them. In this way you can easily remember the articles.


Maybe it is worth to memorize some surprising exceptions too:

die Hose
der Rock
das Mädchen (rule: diminuation)
der Busen (Büstenhalter)
die Männlichkeit (rule: -keit, -heit, ..)
das Geschlecht/Geschlechtsteil (partly logical)


What makes learning by heart a little bit more hard, is that in some grammatical cases "die" transfers to "der" as in:

Die Jungen [plural] spielten mit dem Mädchen mit der roten Hose.

A sentence which tries to drive grammatical transforms to the edge:

Der Rock der zwei Mädchen war länger als die Hose des dritten Mädchens, der der BH zu groß war.

  • Nach welchem Kriterium sind das Überraschungen? "Das Weib" ist sächlich und "die Sache" weiblich - das würde ich noch gelten lassen. Wenn Rock eine Überraschung ist, dann auch die Bohrmaschine, der Lippenstift, das Auto, die Pfeife - tausende und abertausende Dinge. Wo ist da die Überraschung? Dass die naive Idee, das sprachliche Geschlecht hätte etwas mit dem biologischen oder sozialen zu tun, falsch ist? – user unknown Apr 17 '18 at 21:15
  • Gibt es ein Kriterium für Überraschungen? Die erlaubt sind? Es ging hier um Menschen, die Deutsch lernen. Ich kenne welche. Aber man sollte bestimmt ne Statistik anfertigen. Und Humor. Da sollte man drüber diskutieren, ob das erlaubt ist. – Philm Apr 20 '18 at 2:18
  • Sicher gibt es Kriterien für Überraschungen. Meinst Du jeder kann sich aussuchen, was er unter Überraschungen versteht? Überraschungen sind Abweichungen vom gewohnten Lauf der Dinge. Wenn Wörter mit sprachlich weiblichem Geschlecht fast alle eng an Frauen gebunden wären, und bei solchen mit männlichem Geschlecht wäre es umgekehrt, dann wäre der Busen und die Eichel eine Überraschung, Was meinst Du mit erlaubt? Wofür brauchst Du eine Erlaubnis? Oder wer sonst? Was für eine Statistik willst Du anfertigen? Von mir aus fertige auch Humor an. Meine Erlaubnis hast Du! – user unknown Apr 20 '18 at 2:31

I think that this app is very useful to study German articles. You can insert the words that you find during the study and the app will ask you to guess the right article of your words. It is helping me a lot!! http://itunes.apple.com/app/id1215721226﻿


I read a book that is dedicated to this topic: Der, Die, Das: The Secrets of German Gender. It entails a comprehensive summary of all the patterns and rules concerning the proper usage of der, die and das. It offers logical explanations as to why certain words are masculine, feminine or neuter, which really helped me remember the gender of certain words. I'd recommend it to anyone struggling with the gender of nouns.
