German nouns that refer to people can be changed to indicate whether they are male or female. Some nouns are entirely different words to make that differentiation:
| Male | Female | |
| der Mann | die Frau | |
| der Sohn | die Tochter |
But more often, the female form is created by adding "in" to the end of the male form. This is the case for most occupations, for instance.
For some nouns, there is a vowel change as well.
| Male | Female | |
| der Freund | die Freundin | |
| der Schauspieler | die Schauspielerin | |
| der Arzt | die Ärztin |
If the male version of the word ends with an "e", then it is dropped before adding the female ending "in":
| Male | Female | |
| der Meteorologe | die Meteorologin | |
| der Computerexperte | die Computerexpertin |
Nouns with the "in" ending get a double consonant in the plural. The following plural ending is always "en":
| Singular | Plural | |
| die Freundin | die Freundin-n-en | |
| die Schauspielerin | die Schauspielerin-n-en | |
| die Ärztin | die Ärztin-n-en |