in German, is getting the gender correct important?

Question

i can never remember the articles for anything, and if i havent heard the word used in conversation often, then i just resort to either using female, mostly because i like the way the articles sound. anyways i was curious about how important word gender really is for normal conversation and if i sound really silly/dumb.

Answer 1

I spent 3 years in Germany. Yes, it matters. You sound like an illiterate when you use the wrong article.

Answer 2

That's right Without proper definite and infinite articles you can show your poor knowledge of German. In German there are three genders.

der Junge -a boy masculine
die Frau a woman feminine
das Haus a house neuter

You have to know the articles to be able to use them in other cases. German has 4 cases: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. That a look at this


The definite articles in German

N der die das die
G des der des der
D dem der dem den
A den die das die

For example the sentence in nominative:

Das Auto ist blau - The car is blue.

genitive

Das ist das Zimmer des Bruders. It's brother's room

dative die Schwester

Ich helfe der Schwester - I help sister

accusative der Hund

Ich sehe den Hund - I can see the dog

Answer 3

Look up Ein Berliner vs. Eine Berliner.

I believe it was JFK who tried to say "I am a Berliner" and it turned out "I am a jelly donut." It's a nice try, but wrong gender.

So is it important? YES!

Especially once you get into tenses AND cases, you'll need to know what the gender is or you're going to be screwed.

Yes, it's hard to remember. The best way to remember is it practice the vocab WITH the gender.

Der Zug
Die Katze
Der Hund

Say it over and over and over again. Test yourself--make your own tests.

Answer 4

Yes, it's very important. In conversation and in written form, the gender indicates what you're talking about. Masculine, neuter, and feminine, plural forms must be used! If you use them incorrectly, German speakers will know and your sentence may be misinterpreted.

Answer 5

I can't either, but generally find that a catch all da (instead of the old der die das die) gets me by.

BTW the problem with Kennedy was that he simply translated "I am a Berliner" in to German. They don't say that, instead using "I come from / Ich komme aus" or "I stem (lieterally) from / I stimme aus), but yes, he did tell the whole world he was a doughnut.

Answer 6

It is important if you want to sound proper, but I jumble them all the time and people somehow get what I want to say.