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German Speaking Lesson 1

In today’s lesson, we will learn how to utilize German nouns, noun genders, plural nouns, and all the different ways to express “the”. Now let’s get started!

Capitalization rules

You may have noticed something odd about lots of the German words you’ve encountered - many of them start with capital letters.

That’s because all nouns in German are capitalized. Everything is capitalized, including people, places, and things. Not only do you have to remember to capitalize each sentence and “proper” word like we do in English, but you also have to capitalize everything else.

Do you want to watch a party trick? (We thought you'd find this useful the next time you want to impress your pals.) Even if you have no idea what this statement means, you can probably recognize all the nouns in it.

(It's worth a try. Write down the words you believe are nouns, then check your answer by clicking the sentence.)

 

Es sind vier Stifte und drei Katzen in meiner Tasche.

Es sind vier Stifte und drei Katzen in meiner Tasche.

There are four pens and three cats in my bag.

 

This is not just a cool party trick, but it also comes in handy when you’re attempting to figure out the meaning of a new German sentence. Capitalization is a useful indicator that you've encountered a noun.

German noun genders

Every noun (person, place, and object) in German has been assigned a gender: feminine, masculine, or neutral. This is another strange feature we don't have in English.

How do you determine a word's gender? You must look at the word for “the” that comes before the nouns.

 

Noun

German

Meaning

Masculine

der Mann

the man

Feminine

die Frau

the woman

Neutral

das Kind

the kid

Plural

die Kinder

the kids

 

Unfortunately, there aren't many guidelines for determining which kinds of words have which genders. The sole constant is that plural nouns (more than one) will always employ the word “die.”

When learning most other words, you just need to remember the gender.

Noun genders 

Now we’re taking you to the park to learn some German noun genders. It may drive you crazy, but it’s a great opportunity for us to figure out the genders of everything within ten miles of our living places. Get ready. Get set. Go!

Masculine nouns: der

German nouns

German nouns

der Mann

der Baum

man

tree


 

German nouns

German nouns

der Fluss

der Ball

river

ball


 

German nouns

German nouns

der Rucksack

der Vogel

backpack

bird

 

 

Feminine nouns: die

German nouns

German nouns

die Frau

die Ente

woman

duck


 

German nouns

German nouns

die Wolke

die Uhr

cloud

clock


 

German nouns

German nouns

die Straße

die Kamera

street

camera

 

 

Neutral nouns: das

German nouns

German nouns

das Kind

das Buch

kid

book


 

German nouns

German nouns

das Auto

das Rad

car

bike

 

 

Plural nouns: die

German nouns

German nouns

German nouns

die Kinder

die Schuhe

die Blumen

kids

shoes

flowers

 

Plural nouns

It's quite simple in English to go from having one of something to have more than one. In most cases, all you need is an -s.

German nouns

German nouns

dog

dogs

 

Of course, there are certain exceptions. Puppy/puppies and sheep/sheep are two examples. However, most of the time, the -s will do the job.

Unfortunately for those of us who are studying German, this aspect of the language is crazy. Prepare yourself.

Plural nouns in German can be formed in a variety of ways. And because there aren’t any rules guiding you on which one to use, you'll have to memorize the plural form of each noun as you learn it.

(It's great that humans have such a large number of brain cells. It's also great that humans invented flashcards! Make use of them. Seriously.)

Here are some examples of how German plurals are formed:

  • By adding a suffix to the word: –s, –n, –en, –e, –er
  • By converting the vowel in the word to an umlaut vowel (e.g. a to ä)
  • Or the double whammy: By converting the vowel and adding a suffix

Take a look at these examples to understand how unpredictable it can be:

(Keep in mind that die will be used as the “the” word in all plurals. Don't be fooled by that!)

 

Plurals made with -s

English singular noun

English plural noun

German singular noun

German plural noun

car

cars

das Auto

die Autos

radio

radios

das Radio

die Radios

camera

cameras

die Kamera

die Kameras

 

Plurals made with -n

English singular noun

English plural noun

German singular noun

German plural noun

bed

beds

das Bett

die Betten

banana

bananas

die Banane

die Bananen

jacket

jackets

die Jacke

die Jacken

 

Plurals made with -e

English singular noun

English plural noun

German singular noun

German plural noun

dog

dogs

der Hund

die Hunde

carpet

carpets

der Teppich

die Teppiche

 

Plurals made with -er

English singular noun

English plural noun

German singular noun

German plural noun

song

songs

das Lied

die Lieder

kid

kids

das Kind

die Kinder

 

Plurals made with a vowel change

English singular noun

English plural noun

German singular noun

German plural noun

mother

mothers

die Mutter

die Mütter

 

Double whammy

English singular noun

English plural noun

German singular noun

German plural noun

train

trains

der Zug

die Züge

house

houses

das Haus

die Häuser

mouse

mouses

die Maus

die Mäuse

 

Have you gotten all of that? If not, you should try to use flashcards. Another technique is looking up a word in a good German dictionary will also give you the plural form of the word.

This is the end of our today's German speaking lesson. We hope that you can know how to use German nouns correctly. And don’t forget to follow us in the next German lessons.

Tags: learn speaking German, German nouns, how to learn speaking German, learn German lessons, German noun genders, German plural nouns, learn German language, German speaking lessons

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