2.2 Masculine nouns
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not always: die Wache … das Mädchen … die Person … der Mensch …
sentry girl person human being
… is feminine … is neuter … is feminine … is masculine
To confuse matters further, words denoting things can be masculine, feminine or neuter and there is often no logical explanation at all: der Apfel die Birne das Obst
apple pear fruit
der Computer die Diskette das Faxgerät
computer diskette fax machine
Only around 20% of German nouns are neuter, so:
You should not assume that things are neuter. The gender of each noun affects the endings of any articles or adjectives used with that noun, and you should therefore
always check the gender of a noun in your dictionary. It will normally be indicated by m (masculine), f (feminine) or n (neuter);
always learn a noun with its definite article – learning it aloud helps you remember it! However, the ending on a noun, or its meaning, may give a clue to its gender (though there are often exceptions). The most useful of these clues are explained in sections 2.2–2.5.
2.2 Masculine nouns The following nouns are usually MASCULINE.
Nouns with the following meanings: Male humans and animals
der Vater
der Arzt
der Lehrer
Seasons, months, days of the week
der Sommer
der Mai
der Mittwoch
Wind and weather
der Wind
der Regen
der Hagel
der Sturm
Makes of car
der Ford
der BMW
der Mercedes
der Toyota
Nouns with the following endings: -ant
der Konsonant
-ismus
der Sozialismus
-ast
der Kontrast
-ling
der Liebling
-ich
der Teppich
-or
der Motor
-ig
der Honig
-us
der Rhythmus
der Hahn
