This naming convention refers to what changes about the verb. German verbs can further be categorized as either “strong” or “weak” verbs. In their most basic form, the infinitive, all German verbs are composed of the “radical” (sometimes called the “stem”) and the ending -en or -n. Rather than helping you express when something happened, mood allows a speaker to express their attitude toward a subject. Verbs can also change according to categorizations called “ moods,” which are similar to tenses. In German, abbreviations have the same gender as the word they come from.The form of a verb changes to show who was responsible for the action (the person) and when it occurred (the tense). Other nouns have two genders and the meaning of the word changes depending on which gender it has. ( der Marzipan is used mostly in Austria) A few nouns have two genders and sometimes one of them can only be used in certain regions. Note that some German nouns have more than one gender. die Armbanduhr (Armband + die Uhr)ĭer Fußballspieler (Fußball + der Spieler) In German, these words nearly always take their gender from the LAST noun of the compound word. German compound nouns are made up of two or more words, for example, Dosenöffner ( tin-opener) and Eisenbahnlinie ( railway line).

German nouns taken from other languages and ending in -at, -ett, -fon, -ma, -ment, -um are also neuter.

Nouns with the following endings are neuter.

Infinitives (the “to” form of verbs) used as nouns are neuter.

Note that the animals themselves can be any gender.

Nouns which refer to young humans and animals are neuter.

The final -e should also be dropped before these endings der Bach → Bäch → das Bächlein Note that if these words have one of the vowels a, o or u, an umlaut should be added above the vowel. These are called the diminutive form and refer to small persons or objects.

Nouns ending in -lein or - chen are also neuter.

Most nouns beginning with Ge- are neuter.

They have feminine adjective endings which change according to the article which comes before them. Note that some German adjectives are also used as feminine nouns.

Many masculine German nouns can be made feminine by adding -in in the singular and -innen in the plural. In German, there are sometimes very different words for male and female, just as in English. Numbers used in counting, for example one, three, fifty are feminine.German nouns taken from other languages and ending in -anz, -enz, -ie, -ik, -ion, -tät, -ur are also feminine, with some exceptions.Nouns with the following endings are feminine.However, note that male people or animals ending in -e are masculine, and, nouns beginning with Ge- and ending in -e are normally neuter. Nouns with the following endings are masculine.German nouns taken from other languages and ending in -ant, -ast, -ismus, and -or are also masculine:.

Most nouns referring to things that perform an action are also masculine.Seasons, months, days of the week, weather and points of the compass are masculine.Nouns referring to male people and animals are masculine.However, there are some clues which can help you work out or remember the gender of a noun, as explained below. The gender of German nouns can be quite unpredictable – the best thing is simply to learn each noun with its definite article, that is the word for the ( der, die or das) which goes with it: der Teppich

German verb endings