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Do all words in German have a gender?
All German nouns are included in one of three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine or neuter. However, the gender is not relevant to the plural forms of nouns. In German, it is useful to memorize nouns with their accompanying definite article in order to remember their gender.
Is German language changing?
Migration has been influencing the German language, most of all in the colloquial language. Spoken language is becoming less complicated and the discrepancy between colloquial and written language is increasing. At the same time, the German vocabulary is growing, consisting of 5.3 million words to date – and counting!
What gender is shirt in German?
Das Hemd (shirt) is also neuter. Der Löffel (spoon) is masculine, but die Gabel (fork) is feminine, and das Messer (knife) is neuter.
How do you determine the gender of a noun in German?
The good news is, there are some cases when you can determine the gender of the noun by looking at its ending or meaning without having to memorize it all. Following these hints, you can determine whether the noun is der, die or das correctly in most cases.
Is the word student masculine or feminine in German?
By default, it has nothing to do with biological sex or sociological gender. The word der Studentis a masculine noun describing people who study regardlessof their sex or gender. A group of these people is described by the plural form die Studentenregardlessof their sexual or gender composition.
Do you have to learn all the genders of all nouns?
You do not have to learn ALL the genders of ALL the nouns by heart – there are shortcuts. You can use the noun endings (also called suffixes) to solve approximately 50\% of your article and noun gender-related problems. Simply learn which noun endings indicate which gender and you will know which article to use.
Are there any German words that are sensitive to gender?
Plus, there are only few words that are actually sensitive for their gender, e.g. “der Schild” (the shield) and “das Schild” (the sign). And these are usually the things even Germans are not aware of and likely to mess them up.