Which German noun endings help predict gender?

Example in context

die Zeitung — the newspaper; die Freiheit — freedom; das Mädchen — the girl.

The ending -chen makes Mädchen grammatically neuter even though the word refers to a girl. Grammatical gender is a property of the noun; it is not always the natural gender of the person it names.

Try it with input

Collect a few nouns with the same ending from material you understand. Say the article and the noun together. Check a dictionary when you meet an unfamiliar form or a different ending.

Not every noun has a useful ending, and apparent suffixes can be misleading. The final noun normally determines the gender of a compound, as in das Haus and die Haustür.

Use captions for context

Jibber Jabber is our app. Its interactive captions and word lookup can help you check a word without leaving a German video. See our related guide; use a grammar reference when you need a full explanation.