German Nouns And Their Types



Posted: Monday, October 15, 2007

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Nouns are things. Examples include computer, pen, stapler etc etc. While learning about nouns is normally a matter of memory, in German, nouns have a bit of a twist. Whereas in English, plurals are typically formed by adding -s or -es to a word, German has a number of different ways to designate plurals. In fact, it is useful to note that very few German nouns form their plural using an - s suffix. You see, every noun in German has a gender attached to it. So a noun can either be masculine, feminine, or neuter. While some things make sense, the vast majority are completely random. This can make it difficult to learn. How is a beginner supposed to know that wine is masculine and beer is neuter? All you can do is learn each nouns gender as you learn the noun itself.

This concept is not easy to understand for speakers of languages that do not have genders, especially because the genders of nouns do not follow a clear logic. Some nouns that name masculine people or things are masculine, but others are feminine or neuters. Trying to 'reason' about the gender of a noun is not very helpful. The best is to simply learn the gender of the nouns by learning other words that indicate gender, for instance the articles.

Choices of the noun can seem a little random and that is alright. Each culture has its own history and way of shaping their language. So sometimes you just have to roll with the facts folks. However, there are almost always exceptions to rules governing nouns.

Along with each German noun, one has to learn its gender and its plural. When these two are known, the remaining cases can nearly always be inferred, except for masculine nouns with an -en plural, most – but not all – of which are subject to a special declension pattern called weak declension.

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