German Nouns
German nouns are much more grammatically complicated than English nouns. In English, we only change our nouns for plural or possessive forms (dog, dogs, dog’s). In German, however, nouns and their articles (“a,” “an,” and “the” in English) convey meaning by telling us how the noun is used in a sentence, or indicating its case. German nouns also have a gender (masculine, feminine, or neutral) which helps to determine which form you will use when “declining” a noun, or changing its form to show its case. German nouns also differ from English nouns by always being capitalized (der Hund, die Frau).
When learning German nouns, you should first memorize the gender. You can tell a noun’s gender by the main article that accompanies it. “Der” is “the” for masculine nouns (“der Mann” for “the man”), “die” for feminine (“die Frau” for “the woman”) and “das” for neutral (“das Boot” for “the boat”). Note that genders are often arbitrary. For example, although woman is feminine (die Frau), girl is neutral (das Mädchen). You must simply memorize the genders along with the noun when learning vocabulary.
Every German noun and pronoun will be in one of four cases: nominative (subject), accusative (direct object), dative (indirect object), or genitive (possessive). In English, we only decline or change the form or pronouns according to the case (“I” for nominative, “me” for accusative and dative, and “mine” for genitive). In German, however, you must decline every noun depending on its role in the sentence, and different genders have different forms. This is one of the most difficult aspects of German for English speakers since we so rarely make verbal distinctions for cases. And as a further difficulty, German nouns do not depend on their place in a sentence to convey their case, as English words do, so English speakers are forced to listen in an entirely different way.
Every word that accompanies a noun including articles (“a,” “an,” and “the”) and adjectives must all be declined according to the noun’s gender and case. Learning and internalizing these combinations is one of the first steps to mastering German. The following is a list of the most common declensions:
“the” “a” / “an” Masc. Fem. Neut. Masc. Fem. Neut. Nominative der die das ein eine ein Accusative den die das ein eine ein Dative dem der das ein eine ein Genitive der das die ein ein eine
Here are 5 common nouns from each gender group with their approximate English pronunciations:
Masculine der Mann the man “mahn” der Bruder the brother “broo-der” der Kaffee the coffee “kahf-ay” der Apfel the apple “ahp-fel” der Kellner the waiter “kell-nair” Feminine die Frau the woman “frow” die Schwester the sister “shvest-air” die Natur nature “na-toor” die Familie the family “fam-ee-lee-eh” die Mutter the mother “moot-air” Neutral das Mädchen the girl “maid-shen” das Fenster the window “fen-stair” das Gebäude the building “ge-boyd-eh” das Kind the child “kint” das Datum the date “da-toom”