How to remember articles in German

German articles can give language learners a headache. They’re particularly tricky because they have to reflect gender, case and number of the noun, which isn’t the case in English. Other languages with cases modify the noun to indicate case and omit an article altogether. Learning German articles means declinating definite and indefinite articles and knowing the gender of every single noun you want to use, a seemingly daunting task. But we’ll show you a shortcut!

Quick overview: What are German articles?

German articles are the equivalent of “the” and “a” in English in reference to nouns. However, a major difference between the two languages is that each article has to agree in gender, case and number with the noun.

English has articles, but not cases; German has both. The four German cases are nominative, genitive, dative and accusative. The gender of a noun can be masculine, feminine or neuter. The number indicates if a noun is singular or plural.

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The definite articles in German

The definite article refers to specific, countable nouns. In German, the definite articles are der, die, das for masculine, feminine and neuter, which in English are all “the”.

CASE	MASCULINE	FEMININE	NEUTER	PLURAL
Nominative	Der Mann	Die Frau	Das Haus	Die Männer / Frauen / Häuser
Genitive	Des Mannes	Der Frau	Des Hauses	Der Männer / Frauen / Häuser
Dative	Dem Mann	Der Frau	Dem Haus	Den Männern / Frauen / Häusern
Accusative	Den Mann	Die Frau	Das Haus	Die Männer / Frauen / Häuser

The indefinite articles in German

The indefinite article is used for non-specific nouns, and in the plural, for an uncount number. English uses “a” and “an” as well as “some” in the plural. 

CASE	MASCULINE	FEMININE	NEUTER	PLURAL
Nominative	Ein Mann	Eine Frau	Ein Haus	Einige Männer / Frauen / Häuser
Genitive	Eines Mannes	Einer Frau	Eines Hauses	Einiger Männer / Frauen / Häuser
Dative	Einem Mann	Einer Frau	Einem Haus	Einigen Männern / Frauen / Häusern
Accusative	Einen Mann	Eine Frau	Ein Haus	Einige Männer / Frauen / Häuser

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Tricks for pairing German articles with nouns correctly

When you’re used to articles without case and gender as in English or even a language without articles, having to remember so many things to get German articles right can appear as the hardest part of learning the language.

However, there are arbitrary rules for the gender of some words, allowing you to infer their gender from their ending. We’ll give you an overview of these German nouns, which allows you to always use the correct article.

Der

There are a few word endings which indicate a noun is masculine and therefore requires the article “der”: -ant, – or, -ich, -ling, -us, -ist.

-ant	-or	-ich	-ling	-ismus	-ist
Der Praktikant Der Konsonant Der Ministrant	Der Doktor Der Motor Der Humor	Der Teppich Der Abstrich Der Rettich Der Vergleich	Der Zwilling Der Häftling Der Säugling Der Winzling Der Frühling	Der Tourismus Der Optimismus Der Kapitalismus	Der Polizist Der Pianist Der Spezialist Der Internist

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Die

The word endings -keit, -ion, -heit, -enz, -tät and -ung indicate a feminine noun and need the female article “die”.

-keit	-ion	-heit	-enz	-tät	-ung
Die Geschwindigkeit Die Gefälligkeit Die Häufigkeit	Die Station Die Nation Die Situation	Die Seltenheit Die Schönheit Die Feigheit	Die Tendenz Die Präsenz Die Differenz	Die Spezialität Die Normalität Die Solidarität	Die Handlung Die Einladung Die Anleitung

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Das

The endings -chen, -ium, -tum, -lein, -o, -ment and -is indicate a neuter noun and agree with the neuter article “das”.

-chen	-ium / -tum	-lein	-o	-ment	-is
Das Händchen Das Ständchen Das Zeichen Das Kaninchen	Das Aquarium Das Ministerium Das Sammelsurium Das Ultimatum Das Brauchtum Das Votum	Das Fräulein Das Büchlein Das Blümlein Das Verslein	Das Tempo Das Video Das Solo Das Konto Das Studio	Das Kompliment Das Medikament Das Instrument Das Dokument	Das Zeugnis Das Hindernis Das Erlebnis Das Geheimnis

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More tips how to remember articles in German

• When learning a new noun, always learn the gender with it by remembering the definite article. The added benefit is that you’ll not only use the correct article, you’ll make it much easier to properly pair adjectives as well.
• Roughly two thirds of German words with one syllable are masculine. When in doubt, guess masculine with these short words.
• A majority of singular nouns ending in -er are masculine, but there are exceptions, such as “Die Mutter” (the mother). Keep in mind that -er can also form the plural of many words.
• A large majority of nouns ending in -e are feminine.
• Some word endings are misleading: -nd seems to be primarily masculine, as in “Der Mond”, “Der Mund”, “Der Hund”, but exceptions are “Die Hand” or “Das Band”.
• The beginning of a word can be an indicator as well: Ge- can often be a neuter word, as in “Das Gesetz” or “Das Gespräch”, but again, der are exceptions: “Die Geschichte” or “Die Gebärde”.

Apart from articles, how else are German and English different? Find out the 7 major differences between English and German grammar!

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