Artikel: Der Die Das

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There are several rules to determine German article but they are not official and  most of them have so many exceptions. There are three articles in German namely der, die, das. Der refers maskulin, die refers feminine, das refers neutral. 

Der

In the following you will find some essential tips and tricks to recognise the nouns who belong to maskulin and have the article “der“

  • If a word/noun has one of these endings: -ich, -ist, -en, -er, -ent, -ling, -ner, -ismus, -ieg, -ant, that is generally maskulin and has article der.
    Example: der Praktikant, der Lehrer, der Regen, der Spiegel, der Schmetterling, 
  • Different time of the day or year, name of the month, weekdays are generally considered as maskulin.
    Example: Der Juni, der Dezember, der Frühling, der Abend, der Dienstag (exception die Nacht)
  • Directions are normally considered as maskulin.
    Example: der Süden, der Norden, der Südwesten etc.
  • Different types of weather are normally maskulin. But weather itself neutral (das Wetter)
    Example: der Regen, der Schnee, der Wind ect. (exceptions: das Gewitter)
  • Alcoholic drinks.
    Example: der Rum, der Sekt, der Tequila, der Wein, der Wodka etc. (exceptions: das Bier) 
  • Car brands are also generally considered as maskulin.
    Exemple: der Audi, der BMW, der Mercedes, der Toyota etc.

Die

In the following you will find some essential tips and tricks to recognise the nouns who belong to feminine and have the article “die“.

  • A word/ noun with ending one of these (-anz, -heit, -ie, -ik, -age, -ei, -ion, -enz, -itis, -keit, -ur, -schaft, -ität, -ung, -in) is considered as feminine.
    Example: die Krankheit, die Gesundheit, die Universität, die Wohnung, die Situation etc
  • ships name are generally feminine. 
    Example: die Titanic, die Queen Elizabeth etc
  • Substantive numbers.
    Example: die Million, die Milliarde, die Billion
  • Trees names are normally considered as feminine.
    Example: die Kastanie, die Tanne, die Fichte, die Eiche etc.
  • Most of the flowers and fruits are generally considered as feminine.
    Example: die Rose, die Tulpe, die Orchidee, die Kirsche, die Ananas, die Banane etc. (exceptions: der Apfel, der Pfirsich)
 

Das

In the following you will find some essential tips and tricks to recognise the nouns who belong to neutral and have the article “das“. 

  • Colour names are generally neutral
    Example: das Blau, das Gelb, das Grün etc. 
  • Substantive/noun verbs are normally neutral.
    Example: das Essen, das Lernen, das Reisen, das Trinken etc.
  • Most of the state and country names are neutral but there are some exceptions.
    Example: das Deutschland, das Athen, das Griechenland (exception: die Türkei, die USA, die Karibik, die Niederlande, die Schweiz, der Irak, der Iran, …)