German Nouns

7.1: German Nouns

Well after learning about verbs, German nouns are not that difficult. What is a noun again? Are they not things, places, ideas, or people? Yes they most certainly are. Examples of nouns include computer, desk, sun, sky, cloud, water, shoes, camera, cat, boat, and so on.

German nouns can be plural, singular, masculine, feminine, or neither. This depends on the use of course and what you are using the noun for. Let us take a closer look at how to distinguish between noun type and gender.

Nouns which are feminine in nature do not mean the noun is feminine. There is a fine line here and it is important to understand. If the noun is masculine, it simply is referring to something of masculine nature. An example would be a male waiter. This is a masculine noun. A feminine noun would read a female waitress. Now obviously these are silly examples but you get the point.

Choices of the noun can seem a little random and that is alright. Each culture has its own history and way of shaping their language. So sometimes you just have to roll with the facts folks. However, there are almost always exceptions to rules governing nouns.

Depending on the noun's suffix, it may or may not give away the gender that it is. Nouns ending in "ik" normally are feminine. Knowing the gender will come with practice and speaking the German language. If you want a lot of practice with German, give Rocket German a try today. It has lots of detailed games and audio with easy words to learn and follow along with.

The suffix "in" is also a giveaway most of the time for a feminine noun. Again though, there are a few words ending in "in" which are not feminine. Also please note that the use of this can sometimes be used for turning something that is masculine in nature into a feminine word. The "er" ending means masculine most of the time. Remember from previous lessons how certain words may be feminine or masculine? Well if a noun is associated with that word it is probably of the same gender. Keep this in mind as you go through your learning.

German Participles >>

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