2.2 Masculine nouns

not always:

To confuse matters further, words denoting things can be masculine, feminine or neuter and there is often no logical explanation at all:

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.

die Wache … sentry … is feminine das Mädchen … girl … is neuter die Person … person … is feminine der Mensch … human being … is masculine

der Apfel apple der Computer computer die Birne pear die Diskette diskette das Obst fruit das Faxgerät fax machine

The following nouns are usually MASCULINE. Nouns with the following meanings:

Male humans and animals der Vater der Arzt der Lehrer der Hahn 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