The three articles
German nouns have a grammatical gender. They are masculine, feminine or neuter. The article before the noun shows its gender:
masculine: der Kaffee, der Tee, der Saft
feminine: die Milch, die Limo, die Cola
neuter: das Wasser, das Bier
Unfortunately there are very few general rules as to which nouns have which articles. This means you have to learn each noun together with its article.
You will find the gender of a noun in the dictionary. It will either give the definite article or m. (= masculine), f. (= feminine), n. (= neuter).
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Grammatical terms in German: das Nomen: People and things are known as nouns. In German they are sometimes also referred to as Substantive or Hauptwörter. der Artikel: An article is a word that can come before a noun. The words der, die and das are the three definite articles that indicate the grammatical gender of the noun. das Genus: Every noun has a grammatical gender. The genders are masculine, feminine and neuter. Masculine nouns have the article der, feminine nouns have the article die and neuter nouns have the article das. |