German Definite Articles

Nouns in German are always written with a capital letter. They are divided into three genders:

• Masculine
• Feminine
• Neuter

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.

It is best to 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.