Nouns in German are always written with a capital letter. They are divided into three genders:
While a tree does not have a sex, the word for tree, Baum, does have gender: it is masculine. Similarly, a flower does not have a sex, but the word for flower, Blume, has gender: it is feminine.
You must learn the gender when you learn the noun.
For most nouns, this is easily done if you learn the noun together with the definite article.
Der, die and das are the masculine, feminine and neuter forms of the definite article (“the” in English). These will be given to you when you learn each noun, e.g. der Baum, die Blume, das Essen.
When you learn der Baum, say it aloud as der Baum, not just as Baum; when you learn die Blume, say it aloud as die Blume, not just as Blume; and when you learn das Essen, say it aloud as das Essen, not just Essen. This will help you remember the article and the noun.
In German, the most common plural endings are e and en. However, for some words, the stem of the noun changes in the plural. The Vocab Builder will help you learn the plural form, when you learn the noun.
A few words of foreign origin add s to form the plural.
Click here to go the next chapter.