Der, die, das: German gender and articles, explained
Every German noun is masculine (der), feminine (die) or neuter (das), and the gender is part of the word. Learn each noun with its article: der Tisch, die Lampe, das Fenster.
Some endings give the gender away, and every noun starts with a capital letter, which makes nouns easy to spot on the page.
The essentials
- The: der, die, das; in the plural always die. A: ein, eine, ein.
- Nouns ending in -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft and -ion are feminine: die Zeitung, die Freiheit, die Nation.
- Nouns ending in -chen and -lein are neuter, even for people: das Mädchen, das Büchlein.
- Compound nouns take the gender of their last part: die Tür, das Haus, so die Haustür.
- Plurals come in several patterns (Hunde, Lampen, Kinder, Äpfel, Autos), so learn the plural with the noun.
Every lesson on this topic
Each lesson has a full explanation, examples you can listen to, and exercises with answers.
A0 (the A0 course)
- der, die, das: gender and articles: Every noun is masculine, feminine or neuter: learn it with its article
- Plurals: more than one: The plural article die and the common plural endings
A1 (the A1 course)
- The accusative: den, einen, keinen: The direct object takes the accusative, and only masculine nouns show it: der → den, ein → einen.
- Possessives: mein, dein, sein, ihr…: my, your, his, her, our, their: they take the same endings as ein.
- The dative: dem, der, den: The dative marks the person something is given to, and follows dative prepositions.
In the app, these lessons are taught one idea at a time with audio, practised with questions that explain the rule when you slip, and brought back for review on later days.
Other topics
- The four German cases, explained
- German word order, explained
- German adjective endings, explained
- German prepositions and their cases, explained
- German past tenses: Perfekt and Präteritum, explained
- German modal verbs, explained
- German separable verbs, explained
- German conjunctions and subordinate clauses, explained
- German relative clauses, explained
- Konjunktiv II: würde, hätte, wäre, explained
- Konjunktiv I and reported speech, explained
- The German passive, explained
- Du or Sie, and German pronouns, explained
- Nicht or kein: German negation, explained
- German modal particles: doch, mal, ja, eben, explained
- German pronunciation and spelling, explained