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German Nouns


Definition: All German nouns belong to one of three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. For example: Peter [Peter], Koffer [suitcase], Firma [company], Buch [book] are also nouns. Nouns in German are easy to identify because they are all capitalized.

Examples in German:

Our son is driving to the city by car.
Unser Sohn fährt mit dem Auto in die Stadt.

Sohn (son), Auto (car), Stadt (city) are nouns.

NOUNS TYPES:

Proper nouns are names of specific people, things, locations, or ideas:

Karl =Karl
the United Nations = die Vereinten Nationen
Communism = Kommunismus

Common nouns are names of general 'categories' of people, objects, places, or concepts:

boy = Junge
organisation = Organisation

Countable nouns are names of anything that can be counted:

one suitcase = ein Koffer
three books = drei Bücher
many thanks = vielen Dank

Uncountable nouns name what cannot be counted:

wine = Wein
air = Luft

The gender is most easily identified by the noun's definite article in the nominative case: der (masculine), die (feminine and plural), and das (neuter).

  Masculine   Femenine
       
the man der Mann the woman die Frau
the table der Tisch the sun die Sonne
the rock der Stein the question die Frage

  Neuter
   
the child das Kind
the fire das Feuer
the book das Buch


More:
Masculine Nouns
Femenine Nouns
Neuters Nouns
Number Nouns
Compound Nouns


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German Grammar