Nouns are words referring to objects, things, people, places, plants, animals, concepts, actions and ideas.
Nouns in German work very similarly to how they work in English. The main differences are that German nouns have gender (masculine, feminine or neuter) and are always capitalised (unlike English, which only capitalises proper nouns).
These are all examples of nouns in German:
| der Traum | the dream |
| die Pflanze | the plant |
| das Vertrauen | the trust |
| die Schlummer-Funktion | the snooze function |
| Hamburg | Hamburg |
| Rosenthaler Str. 99 | Rosenthaler Str. 99 |
| Moritz | Moritz |
common nouns vs. proper nouns
Just like in English, German has proper nouns, which designate specific, named things:
| München | Munich |
| Afrika | Africa |
| die Titanic | the Titanic |
| Toy Story | Toy Story |
These are distinguished from common nouns, which refer to generic things:
| die Ameise | the ant |
| der Teppich | the carpet |
| die Socke | the sock |
| das Klavier | the piano |
count nouns vs. mass nouns
German, like English, also distinguishes between count nouns and mass nouns.
Count nouns are nouns you can count:
| die Blume zwei Blumen | the flower two flowers |
| der Hund neunundneunzig Hunde | the dog ninety-nine dogs |
Mass nouns are nouns which can’t be broken down into countable units. They usually refer to materials, liquids etc.:
| Luft Die Reifen brauchen mehr Luft. | air The tyres need more air. |
| Wasser Ich trinke viel Wasser. | water I drink a lot of water. |
| Metall Dieser Teil ist aus Metall. | metal This part is made of metal. |
| Mehl Wir brauchen Mehl für den Kuchen. | flour We need flour for the cake. |
If you want to specify the quantity, you have to prefix the noun with some kind of countainer or measurement:
| 500g Mehl | 500g of flour |
| zwei Atemzüge frische Luft | two breaths of fresh air |
| ein bisschen Zeit | a bit of time |
| ein Glas Wein | a glass of wine |
noun gender
Nouns in German belong to one of three genders – masculine, feminine or neuter. These often align with biological gender, but not always.
Every noun has a gender, which can be confusing for English speakers. Rather than thinking of objects as actually being boys or girls, it’s easier to just think of them as three distinct categories.
Masculine nouns are denoted with der, feminine nouns are denoted with die, and neuter nouns with das.
| der Keks masculine noun | the biscuit |
| die Suppe feminine noun | the soup |
| das Eis neuter noun | the ice cream |
The gender of a noun has an effect on which pronouns and adjective endings you use, so it is important to learn new nouns with their gender.
plurals
German noun formation is slightly more complex than in English. In English almost all nouns add an -s in the plural. In German, there are several different ways to form the plural.
The plural form uses the article die, regardless of the gender.
| der Baum > die Bäume | the tree the trees |
| die Frau > die Frauen | the woman the women |
| das Auto > die Autos | the car the cars |
There are some rules you can use to make learning the plurals easier, but generally it’s best to learn the plural when you learn the word, as they can sometimes be unpredictable. This is not as difficult as it sounds.
Mass nouns generally don’t have a plural form:
| die Liebe (no plural) | love |
| der Hass (no plural) | hate |
| der Lärm (no plural) | noise |
Some mass nouns do have a plural. When they do, they usually refers to different types of that thing:
| das Bier die Biere | beer beers (types of beer) |
| das Metall die Metalle | metal metals (types of metal) |
| das Holz die Hölzer | wood woods (types of wood) |