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I'm wondering if there is a general rule in determining words that are masculine, feminine or neuter.

If there is what is the rule.

LIke in spanish El Nino is masculine, where as La Nina is feminine.

2007-06-01 14:52:22 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture Languages

8 answers

There are some general rules of thumb for helping to determine the gender of a noun.

This website has proven to be very useful to me. Remember, there are always exceptions to the rules but for the most part, this will cover a lot of the nouns. Hope this helps you out.

2007-06-01 18:02:29 · answer #1 · answered by Rach 3 · 0 0

To a limited degree. For example, things ending in diminuitives like -chen or -lein are all neuter (why it's 'das Mädchen' describing what is clearly a woman). Other endings take specific genders universally or almost universally. Unlike Spanish, where you can describe the rule and its very few exceptions (la mano), German is a bunch of exceptions with a few little rules here and there.

2007-06-01 14:59:06 · answer #2 · answered by Doc Occam 7 · 0 0

Not Really. You Must Get It In Spirit And of Course A Lot Of Practice

It Helps Greatly If You Know Sanskrit Well

2007-06-01 18:32:31 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Just a note about Spanish....


The "o" or "a" ending for masculine and feminine only works generally. For example, in Spanish you also have...

el alma
la mano

2007-06-01 15:09:11 · answer #4 · answered by Mimii 5 · 0 0

For the most part it's just a matter of memorization. For some words it makes sense, but then there are many others which are totally counterintuitive.

You have to memorize the noun along with its gender on the whole when you're learning.

2007-06-01 16:23:24 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

You have only a few ground rules to help you out - usually things ending in "e", "ung", "chen", "lein" and others are feminine, and things like "er" among others are masculine.

But in general, you're gonna have to memorize the genders along with the words - that's what they teach you in most credible German courses.

2007-06-01 15:39:49 · answer #6 · answered by vladblutsauger 2 · 0 1

In German class we had to memorize the words with the articles infront of them, Die Der Das.

It kinda sucks, but you get used to it over time.

2007-06-01 16:07:51 · answer #7 · answered by AnGeL 4 · 0 0

Im afraid you will desire to study the gender of each and every noun. often of thumb nouns ending with -e, -ung, -tion or -heit are female most of the time, nouns that end with a consonant are male most of the time on the same time as nouns that are truthfully verbs (like Das Leben or Das Laufen) are neuter. And "Die" isn't used for the plural "most of the time". Its continually used for the 1st and fourth case plural on the same time as "den" is often used for the third case plural.

2016-10-09 07:08:11 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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