Three boxes for every noun
In German every noun gets sorted into one of three gendered boxes — der, die, or das — and it isn't always logical (a girl, 'das Mädchen', is neuter!). Learning the article with each noun is like learning its last name.
Every noun has a gender
German has three words for 'the': der (masculine), die (feminine), and das (neuter). You learn each noun together with its article. And every German noun is capitalized, wherever it appears in a sentence.
der Hund (the dog) · die Katze (the cat) · das Haus (the house)
Lab · Spot the noun
- Read: 'Ich sehe das Haus.'
- Find the capitalized word inside the sentence.
- That capitalization marks it as a noun.
What you should see: Haus is capitalized mid-sentence because all German nouns are capitalized; 'das' marks it neuter.