Language/German/Grammar/Gender
In German nouns are either masculine (male), feminine (female) or neuter (things/entities without a natural gender like book, sun or moon). The grammatical gender is not always identical with the natural gender of a noun in German. Be carful: the grammatical gender of a noun in your native language can be different from the grammatical gender of the noun in German.
Examples:
- das Mädchen neuter - girl
Girls are female, the natural gender of a girl is female, but the grammatical gender of "Mädchen" in German is neuter.
- die Sonne in German is feminine - the sun in English is masculine
- der Mond in German is masculine - the moon in English is feminine
Why is it so important to know the grammatical gender of a noun in German? In German you often have to use an article with the noun. The articles for the three types of gender and the different cases are not the same. To use the correct article you have to know the grammatical gender.
Example for definite (der, die, das) and indefinite (ein, eine) articles in German
Singular
(man - Mann, woman - Frau, girl - Mädchen)
| Case | masculine | feminine | neuter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominativ | der / ein Mann | die / eine Frau | das / ein Mädchen |
| Genitiv | des / eines Mannes | der / einer Frau | des / eines Mädchens |
| Dativ | dem / einem Mann | der / einer Frau | dem / einem Mädchen |
| Akkusativ | den / einen Mann | die / eine Frau | das /ein Mädchen |
Pronouns that replace nouns are different for gender and cases, too. So you have to know the grammatical gender to use the correct pronoun in German sentences.
Example:
The man is talking to his child. He wears a black shirt.
- Der Mann spricht mit seinem Kind. Er trägt ein schwarzes Shirt.
For nouns that describe a profession you are able to "transform" the grammatical gender from masculine to feminine in German. Similar to the transformation of the noun actor as the expression for a male actor to the noun actress as the expression for a female actor in English.
- der Schauspieler (actor) -> die Schauspielerin (actress)
- der Doktor (doctor) -> die Doktorin
- der Fahrer (driver) -> die Fahrerin