German Articles: der die das
In German we have three main articles (gender of nouns):
- der (masculine),
- die (feminine) and
- das (neuter)
Tip: The grammatical gender doesn’t follow a logical set of rules. So, always learn German nouns and articles together.
| definite article | indefinite article | |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | der | ein |
| feminine | die | eine |
| neuter | das | ein |
| plural | die |
der Mann
the man
Der Mann liest.
The man is reading.
die Frau
the woman
Die Frau isst.
The woman is eating.
der Junge
the boy
Der Junge trinkt.
The boy is drinking.
das Mädchen*
the girl
Das Mädchen schreibt.
The girl is writing.
Definite articles (der, die, das, etc.)
Either way, we have a chart that tells us specifically how to say ’the’ in German — six different ways!
How do you pick out the correct variant of ‘the’?
In order to pick out the version of the that you need, you have to know two things:
- What is the gender of the noun?
- What is the case of the noun?
For example, if you want to say the book in German, you have to know that book (Buch) is a neuter noun. Not masculine or feminine (and plural would obviously be books, and that’s different).
With this much information, you know that you need the das, dem, or des version of the neuter ‘the’.
Indefinite articles (ein, eine, einen, etc.)
It’s all well-and-good to learn how to say the in German. And maybe you’re thinking that one chart wasn’t so bad.
But there’s more!
Now you have to learn how to say a (and ‘not a/any’) in German, which is also obviously pretty important.
Of course, in conventional German-learning, there’s another chart for that:
