German Feminine Nouns

We all know how difficult it is to guess the right gender if it comes to German nouns. The bad news is: There is no official rule for when to use der, die and das. The good news is: There are guidelines which will make it easier to choose between them. In this post we will be looking at the guidlines for die words 🙂

Guidlines for Feminine Nouns

1. People/Animals

Nearly all nouns which refer to a female person or animal are die words. Here is a list of the most common ones:

German	English
die Mutter	mother
die Schwester	sister
die Tochter	daughter
die Tante	aunt
die Oma	grandma
die Kuh	cow
die Ente	duck
die Löwin	female lion

There is however one exceptions: das Mädchen = girl

2. Female Occupations

Job titles which refer to a female person are die words. Here are some examples:

German	English
die Lehrerin	teacher
die Bäckerin	baker
die Fotografin	photographer
die Polizistin	policewoman
die Rechtsanwältin	lawyer
die Zahnärztin	dentist
die Köchin	chef
die Nonne	nun

3. Plural Nouns

All plural nouns are die words. Here are some examples:

German	English
die Autos	cars
die Hunde	dogs
die Tiere	animals
die Blumen	flowers
die Handys	mobiles
die Äpfel	apples
die Männer	men
die Polizisten	policemen

4. Names of Trees, Fruit and Flowers

There are some groups of words that are mostly die words such as names of trees, fruit and flowers. Here are some examples:

German	English
die Kiefer	pine
die Eiche	oak
die Banane	banana
die Kiwi	kiwi
die Birne	pear
die Rose	rose
die Tulpe	tulip
die Orchidee	orchid

There are however few exceptions. For example: der Apfel – apple, das Gänseblümchen – daisy etc

5. Names of Rivers

There are some groups of words that are also mostly die words such as names of rivers. Here are some examples:

German	English
die Wolga	Volga
die Elbe	Elbe
die Seine	Seine
die Themse	Thames
die Tiber	Tiber

There are however few exceptions. For example: der Nil – Nile, der Rhein – Rhine etc

6. Certain Endings

Nouns that end in the following are always die nouns:

heit
keit
ung
tät
schaft
ie

Here are some examples:

German	English
die Schönheit	beauty
die Aufmerksamkeit	attention
die Lösung	solution
die Universität	university
die Leidenschaft	passion
die Chemie	chemistry

The nouns that end in the following are also usually die nouns:

Here are some examples:

German	English
die Mathematik	mathematics
die Lehrerin	teacher
die Metzgerei	butcher
die Tasse	cup