The grammatical genders of German nouns seem to be a pain in the neck for most foreign learners of German. Therefore, I would like to give you some hints whether a particular noun can be masculine, feminine or neuter in German. Subsequent to my two previous posts I will continue with masculine German nouns.<\/p>\n
In my two last posts you learned that all nouns are masculine, which match the following features. German nouns are masculine when they denote:<\/p>\n
| –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a male human <\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a male animal<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a male occupation<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 an animal species<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a mineral or stone<\/td>\n | –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a season of the year <\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a month<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a day of the week<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a daytime<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 a point of the compass<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n a)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Winds, precipitation, weather phenomena<\/strong><\/p>\n Whenever you will talk about the weather you can be sure that the nouns you would like to use in your speech are masculine.<\/p>\n der Taifun \u2013 typhoon<\/p>\n der Sturm \u2013 storm<\/p>\n der Hurrikan \u2013 hurricane<\/p>\n der Orkan \u2013 hurricane<\/p>\n der Tornado \u2013 tornado<\/p>\n der Regen \u2013 rain<\/td>\n der Monsun \u2013 monsoon<\/p>\n der Hagel – hail<\/p>\n der Nebel \u2013 fog<\/p>\n der Donner \u2013 thunder<\/p>\n der Blitz \u2013 lighning<\/p>\n der Niederschlag – precipitation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n Exceptions are: das Wetter \u2013 weather \/ die Brise \u2013 breeze \/ das Gewitter \u2013 thunderstorm<\/p>\n <\/p>\n b) The following five nouns that end with \u201c\u2013ee\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n der Kaffee \u2013 coffee<\/p>\n der Tee \u2013 tea<\/p>\n der See \u2013 lake<\/p>\n der Schnee \u2013 snow<\/p>\n der Klee \u2013 clover<\/p>\n Please note well that the German word \u201cSee\u201d can also refer to the \u2018sea\u2019, but only when you replace the article \u201cder\u201d with \u201cdie\u201d. Hence, \u201cder See\u201d means \u201cthe lake\u201d and \u201cdie See\u201d means \u201cthe sea\u201d, for example: die Ostsee = the Baltic Sea; die Nordsee = the North Sea.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n b)\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Brand names of cars and types of trains<\/strong><\/p>\n Brand names of cars and types of train are usually masculine, regardless whether you are talking about German cars and trains or foreign ones.<\/p>\n der Opel<\/p>\n der BMW<\/p>\n der Fiat<\/p>\n der Renault<\/p>\n der Ford<\/p>\n der Volkswagen (VW)<\/p>\n der Mercedes<\/p>\n der Volvo<\/td>\n der Ferrari<\/p>\n der Porsche<\/p>\n der G\u00fcterzug \u2013 freighttrain<\/p>\n der TGV (French train)<\/p>\n der ICE (German high-speed train)<\/p>\n der Acela Express (American high-speed train)<\/p>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n c)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Names for currencies<\/strong><\/p>\n The majority of the world\u2019s currencies are masculine in German.<\/p>\n der Euro \u2013 euro<\/p>\n der Rubel \u2013 ruble<\/p>\n der Peso \u2013 peso<\/p>\n der Franc \u2013 franc<\/p>\n der Real \u2013 real<\/td>\n der Lew \u2013 lev<\/p>\n der Rial – rial<\/p>\n der Yen \u2013 yen<\/p>\n der Schilling \u2013 shilling<\/p>\n der Zloty \u2013 zloty<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n Exceptions are: die Mark \u2013 mark \/ die Krone \u2013 krone \/ die Rupie \u2013 rupee \/ die Lira \u2013 lira<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To be continued\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The grammatical genders of German nouns seem to be a pain in the neck for most foreign learners of German. Therefore, I would like to give you some hints whether a particular noun can be masculine, feminine or neuter in German. Subsequent to my two previous posts I will continue with masculine German nouns. In…<\/p>\n |