German Nouns

In this lesson, we'll explore German nouns. But first, let's quickly review: what is a noun? A noun is a word that identifies a person, place, thing, or concept.

Here are some examples of nouns:

der König

king

der Wald

forest

die Religion

religion

die Gans

goose

der Tisch

table

das Telefon

telephone

1. German Nouns & Capitalization

In English, we capitalize the first word of a sentence, names, and proper nouns.

In German, however, all nouns - common and proper - are capitalized. That means every thing counts.

2. Noun Gender: Der, Die, Das

You may have noticed that all German nouns in the tables include either der, die, or das. These are the three German equivalents of the word the, each identifying a different grammatical gender:

• die for feminine nouns
• der for masculine nouns
• das for neuter nouns

Unfortunately, there's no one simple rule for determining the gender of German nouns. While some noun genders seem logical:

...others aren't:

If "man" is masculine and "woman" is feminine, why is "girl" (das Mädchen) neuter? And why is "table" masculine and "lamp" feminine? There are some helpful rules, such as:

• All months of the year are masculine
• Nouns ending in -ung are feminine
• Most nouns ending in -e are feminine

3. Plural Nouns In German

Now, let's look at how to make nouns plural in German!

In English, we usually add an sto make a word plural. In German, it's a bit different. Plurals can be formed in various ways:

• By attaching an e, en, n, er or s to the end of the word
• By replacing a vowel with an ä, ö or ü
• Some nouns use both an umlaut and a word ending to form the plural

Here are some examples of singular and plural nouns. Notice that all plural nouns use the article die.

der Tisch

table

die Tische

tables

die Oma

grandma

die Omas

grandmas

das Auge

eye

die Augen

eyes

Now, let's look at some examples where the vowel changes into an umlaut to form the plural:

die Gans

goose

die Gänse

geese

der Vogel

bird

die Vögel

birds

die Kuh

cow

die Kühe

cows

Well done 🎉!

We've covered the basics of German nouns: capitalizing them, assigning them one of three articles (der, die, das), and forming plurals. Don't worry too much about memorizing the rules for gender and plurals right now. What's important is understanding that:

• German nouns have one of three articles, depending on gender
• German nouns have many different plural forms

Whenever you're ready, move on to the next lesson on German verbs, to continue your learning!