Auf Deutsch (in German), there are three ways of saying 'the'. This makes German a simpler language than Italian in that there are seven (articles)-ja, sieben-in the latter language!
Auf Deutsch, we have:
Der (day-er)-masculine
Die (dee)-feminine
und
Das-neuter
WAIT
What do masculine, feminine and neuter all mean?
They're what nouns can be. If you've studied romance languages, like French, Spanish or Italian, then you'll have already understood.
For those who haven't fully grasped the idea of what the gender of a noun is, well, it dates back to centuries ago, when people gave objects a certain identity. A table, in German, is a boy (masculine)-der Tisch, and so is a tree-der Baum, a man (obviously)-der Mann, whereas feminine nouns are female people (aunt-die Tante, mother, die Mutter, you get the picture) and some other things. Neuter nouns don't have a gender, therefore they are considered neuter. Ever seen 'das Auto' in the advert? It means, 'the car'! It's neuter, too.
In Italian, you can almost always tell which nouns are masculine (when they end with an -o) and which are feminine (ending with an -a). There are no neuter ones. In German there are many, and unfortunately there isn't really a way of knowing which nouns are masculine, feminine or neuter. Of course, there are some exceptions that you can decipher easily, but we'll get to that later.
So, learn the following vocabulary and corresponding genders and plural form!
Abend, der (Abende)-evening
Alphabet, das (Alphabete)-alphabet
Beginn, der (only singular)-beginning
Computer, der (Computers/or without plural)-computer
Differenz, die (Differenzen)-difference
Ende, das-end
Eröffnungsfeier, die (-feiern)-opening ceremony
Ferien, die (only plural)-holidays
Geige, die (Geigen)-violin
Jahr, das (Jahre)-year
Kind, das (Kinder!)-child
Zahl, die (Zahlen)-number
YOU ARE READING
German, the Sexy Way (UNDER RECONSTRUCTION)
Non-FictionHallo! This is Aolani (Alex) and you're about to learn Deutsch! I bet you already knew that word, pronounced 'Doy-tch', didn't you? If not, there's plenty more where that came from. Dialogues, grammar, song translations? All the way up to level B2...
