Right, so we understand what the basic German articles are, and why it’s important to learn them from the start. My Favourite Methods for Learning German Articles Since Hofis the last word in this compound noun, and it happens to be a masculine noun, the whole compound noun, Bahnhof becomes a masculine noun. The last word is the one which determines the gender of the whole compound noun.įor this compound noun with have 2 nouns, die Bahn (the train) and der Hof (the yard / station). The great thing about compound nouns is that you can easily tell which their gender is by looking at the last word which forms the compound noun. Chances are you’ll learn some of the smaller words and their articles separately. Fortunately they’re actually made up of 2 or 3 other words, stuck together. Compound NounsĬompound nouns are those often intimidatingly long words German is famous for. Just be aware of them, as you progress you will start noticing patterns yourself. It’s important to not get bogged down trying to remember these rules. Words ending -chen (remember das Mädchen), -lein, -um.Many but not all words ending -e ( die Katze, die Pflanze). ![]() Words ending -ung, -keit, -heit, -schaft, -ei ( die Wohnung, die Mannschaft).Compass points ( der Norden, der Westen).Days, months, seasons ( der Sommer, der Montag).The reason for this rule-breaker is the -chen ending. This isn’t always the case because we have das Mädchen (neut. For example der Mann (masc.), die Frau (fem.), das Kind (neut. People and occupations generally have the gender that is obvious. Here are a few of the more helpful and more obvious rules that I have found useful myself: Now despite the maddening feeling that the genders have been randomly assigned to each noun, there are a few rules. You won’t be able to speak German correctly without having a good understanding of them and how they work.ĭon’t be intimidated, for now when you learn a new noun, learn which gender it has and which article goes with it. They dictate adjective endings and cases. Trust me on this one, I learned a load of nouns for everyday objects, then later on realised I had to go back and learn the gender.Īs frustrating as they are, the German articles are tightly woven into every aspect of the language. However it’s really important that when you start learning, you memorise which gender each noun is assigned. It may be tempting to ignore the articles when you first start learning German. Why Should You Learn the German Articles? In this post I’m going to use the basic, nominative case to give examples of noun genders. At this stage, just bear in mind that German uses 4 grammatical cases, which will alter the article depending on the context in the sentence, don’t worry about that for now, just concentrate on the gender of each noun. It always refers back to the gender of the noun.įirst of all let me introduce you to the basic articles. ![]() It changes it’s form depending on which case is used. Article = The article can be either definite (the) or indefinite (a / an).Noun gender = Each noun, object, animal, thing has an assigned gender.In this post I’m going to use a couple of terms, and I want to be totally clear from the start: The best methods for memorising German articles.Some rules to make remembering noun genders easier. ![]() ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |