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 Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 5:43 pm
Okay I'm really new to german and I know that Der=masculine, Die= feminine and Das= neutral.
My teacher told us that there is a way to tell if a noun is masculine or feminine but she didn't say how. Can I get some help on it?
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Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 2:02 pm
Mine said the same thing, but didn't really explain how, but for the most part just go with what sounds right to you. Also if you don't know just stick with one word for the.
Also the word Mädchen sounds really funny if you have anything but das in front of it.
What i've found is that you really do know if it sounds wrong or not after a while. Just work on it, and when you study always learn the word for the infront of a noun =D
Hint: You don't need a word for the in front of a verb so if your vocabulary list is like ours that cuts out a good eight-10 words you have to guess on XD
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Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:36 pm
you basicaly have to memorize it for each noun.
like in most languages that have gendered nouns.
it's realy not that hard:/
hopee i was healpful! =]
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Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 1:35 pm
strawberryfizz Mine said the same thing, but didn't really explain how, but for the most part just go with what sounds right to you. Also if you don't know just stick with one word for the. Also the word Mädchen sounds really funny if you have anything but das in front of it. What i've found is that you really do know if it sounds wrong or not after a while. Just work on it, and when you study always learn the word for the infront of a noun =D Hint: You don't need a word for the in front of a verb so if your vocabulary list is like ours that cuts out a good eight-10 words you have to guess on XD Yeah, she told us once that if we don't know which to use, then just use "das".
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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:59 pm
When you get down to it you really have to memorize them, but there are some endings that typically have a certain gender (I will put a list that my teacher gave me below...) but there are exceptions to this rule. I would check it out though, because in the end the more German you do the better you will know, and eventually you wont even have to think about it...but for now this might be helpful...
Feminine..
-e
-in
-ion
-heit
-kelt
-schaft
-tät
-ung
-ur
-ie
-ik
-enz
-el
-anz
-German Rivers
Masculine...
-er
-en
-ig
-ling
-or
-us
Seaons
Months
Days
Non German Rivers
Neuter...
-tum
-lein
-chen
-ment
-(i)um
Continents
Cities
Countries
Letters of the alphabet
Infinitives when used as nouns
REMEMBER there are exceptions.
But hopefully that helps a little. biggrin
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:52 am
larmestoxiques When you get down to it you really have to memorize them, but there are some endings that typically have a certain gender (I will put a list that my teacher gave me below...) but there are exceptions to this rule. I would check it out though, because in the end the more German you do the better you will know, and eventually you wont even have to think about it...but for now this might be helpful...
Feminine..
-e
-in
-ion
-heit
-kelt
-schaft
-tät
-ung
-ur
-ie
-ik
-enz
-el
-anz
-German Rivers
Masculine...
-er
-en
-ig
-ling
-or
-us
Seaons
Months
Days
Non German Rivers
Neuter...
-tum
-lein
-chen
-ment
-(i)um
Continents
Cities
Countries
Letters of the alphabet
Infinitives when used as nouns
REMEMBER there are exceptions.
But hopefully that helps a little. biggrin Well, the not-German-river thingy isn't right I think. Because, for example, it's "Die Rhône" and "Die Moldau" though that aren't German rivers
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Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 6:04 pm
good lists!
The only thing I can really add to that is that loan words tend to be neuter.
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Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 2:50 pm
also most organic things like onions and oil and salt are das.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:07 am
I'm not sure if this will help anyone...but my teacher has given us a few ways to determine gender for MANY but not ALL cases. Of course, there are many exceptions to the guidelines/rules. These are mainly tricks. They're not definite and don't work for everything.
-Think like Freud. Gender is determined by what sex would usually be associated with the item. For example, tree [der Baum]. Masculine. Think of the shape of a tree. Another example would be a nose [die Nase]. Think of the shape.
-Das is used a lot for things that EVERYONE should have/needs. Like water [das Wasser], the weather [das Wetter], bread [das Brot]. It is also used when the object is thought of as small or YOUNG. Like, the child [das Kind]. That is the reason you ALWAYS use das for nouns ending in chen or lein.
-Spelling. If you know how the spelling of the noun, most of the time, you can pick the gender...at least with die and der. If it ends in an e, it is USUALLY die. Some words, like the corner [die Ecke] are ONLY die BECAUSE of the spelling.
That's all I can think of at this moment, but I'll add more if I get more.
The MAIN thing to remember is, ALL rules have exceptions, and most of the time, a word won't fit any of them. You have to memorize them. Here's some advice... TRICK yourself into knowing which to choose. Make a joke or a riddle or a song to help you remember. Do whatever you can.
As far as tricks go...an example would be mother earth [the world - die Welt] and the man in the moon [the moon - der Mond]
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