Grammatical gender (of nouns)

What is the grammatical gender?

The grammatical gender (in German: Genus) is a quality of a German noun and belongs to its grammatical categories. It is the counterpart of the biological (natural) gender, the sex, and corresponds to it in most cases. Nouns that do not represent living beings have only a grammatical gender and no biological one. In the German language, nouns can be masculine (male), feminine (female), and neuter (neutral). According to this, they are given the articles ‘der, die,’ and ‘das’, which all mean ‘the’ in English.

Be careful: Although the articles may differ for the same noun in the singular and plural, its gender does not change! Example:

Number →	Singular	Plural
Example	der Tisch (the table)	die Tische (the tables)
Gender	masculine	masculine

Information: As it can be challenging at times to decide on the correct article, the suffix (ending) of a noun often helps to identify the grammatical gender. Compare the coming examples that illustrate this:

Masculine (male)

Nouns with the following endings are usually masculine (male) and carry the article ‘der’ (the):

Ending or suffix	Examples
-ant	der Lieferant (supplier), der Adjutant (adjutant)
-ent	der Agent (spy), der Interessent (interested party)
-er¹	der Computer (computer), der Leser (reader)
-ich	der Rettich (radish), der Anstrich (painting)
-ismus	der Fanatismus (fanaticism), der Alkoholismus (alcoholism)
-ist	der Tourist (tourist), der Reservist (reservist)
-ling	der Zwilling (twin), der Feigling (coward)
-or	der Rotor (rotor), der Generator (generator)

¹ most of these nouns but far not all

Feminine (female)

Nouns that have the following endings are usually feminine (female) and carry the article ‘die’ (the):

Ending or suffix	Examples
-anz	die Ignoranz (ignorance), die Akzeptanz (acceptance)
-ei	die Schreinerei (carpentry), die Abtei (abbey)
-enz	die Kongruenz (congruence), die Intelligenz (intelligence)
-heit	die Frechheit (cheekiness), die Sicherheit (security)
-ie	die Fantasie (fantasy), die Studie (study)
-ik	die Technik (technology), die Statistik (statistics)
-in²	die Biologin (biologist), die Lehrerin (teacher)
-ion	die Station (station), die Religion (religion)
-ität	die Aktualität (topicality), die Neutralität (neutrality)
-keit	die Fröhlichkeit (cheerfulness), die Einsamkeit (loneliness)
-schaft	die Erbschaft (inheritance), die Mitgliedschaft (membership)
-ung	die Umleitung (detour/diversion), die Benennung (naming)
-ur	die Armatur (fitting), die Natur (nature)

² for female job titles

Neuter (neutral)

Nouns that have the following endings are usually neuter (neutral) and carry the article ‘das’ (the):

Ending or suffix	Examples
-chen	das Schweinchen (piggy), das Küsschen (brief kiss)
-lein	das Bäumlein (little tree), das Büblein (little boy)
-ment	das Fundament (foundation), das Pergament (parchment)
-tum	das Heiligtum (sanctuary), das Besitztum (possession)
-um	das Memorandum (memorandum), das Publikum (audience)