German definite articles der, die, das: gender, endings and cases

Rule

Every German noun has one of three genders, and the definite article shows which one: der (masculine), die (feminine), das (neuter). In the plural all three collapse into one form: die. Gender is stored with the noun, not derived from its meaning, so learn each word together with its article — der Tisch, die Lampe, das Fenster.

Most of the nouns you meet at A1 can be sorted by their ending:

• der — agent nouns built from verbs in -er, plus the endings -ling, -ismus, -or, -ant and the groups days, months, seasons, compass points and weather: der Fahrer, der Lehrer, der Lehrling, der Kapitalismus, der Motor, der Montag, der Sommer, der Regen. Careful: -er alone is no gender marker (das Fenster, das Zimmer, die Mutter, die Butter).
• die — the suffixes -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -tion, -ei, -ie, -ik, and most nouns ending in -e: die Zeitung, die Freiheit, die Möglichkeit, die Nation, die Musik, die Lampe. The systematic -e exceptions are the weak masculines (der Junge, der Kollege, der Name) and das Auge, das Ende.
• das — nouns in -chen, -lein, -ment, -um and Greek-origin -ma, plus infinitives used as nouns and colours: das Mädchen, das Instrument, das Datum, das Thema, das Essen, das Blau. (-ma only in Greek loanwords — die Firma comes from Italian.)

The ending beats the meaning: das Mädchen is neuter because of -chen, even though a girl is female.

The article also carries the case. Only the masculine changes in the accusative (der → den); the dative and the genitive change in every gender, and in the dative plural the noun itself adds -n (den Kindern).

After a preposition the article often merges with it: an dem → am, in dem → im, zu dem → zum, zu der → zur, bei dem → beim, von dem → vom, in das → ins, an das → ans.

Finally, German keeps the article in several places where English drops it: with days, months and seasons, with body parts, with abstract nouns, and with a small group of country names such as die Schweiz, die Türkei and der Iran.

Examples

• Der Lehrer erklärt die Regel. — The teacher explains the rule.
• Die Zeitung kostet zwei Euro. — The newspaper costs two euros.
• Das Mädchen wohnt in Köln. — The girl lives in Cologne.
• Die Kinder warten auf den Bus. — The children are waiting for the bus.
• Ich sehe den Mann jeden Morgen. — I see the man every morning.
• Wir helfen dem Kind bei den Hausaufgaben. — We help the child with the homework.
• Das Fahrrad des Lehrers steht vor der Schule. — The teacher's bike is standing in front of the school.
• Am Montag beginnt der Kurs. — The course starts on Monday.
• Ich wasche mir die Hände. — I'm washing my hands.

Quick table

Common mistakes

• ❌ Die Mädchen ist nett. → ✅ Das Mädchen ist nett. — -chen and -lein are always neuter; grammatical gender is not biological gender.
• ❌ Der Zeitung ist neu. → ✅ Die Zeitung ist neu. — the suffix -ung always makes a noun feminine (root words such as der Sprung, der Schwung are not derivations).
• ❌ Ich sehe der Mann. → ✅ Ich sehe den Mann. — masculine is the only gender whose article changes in the accusative.
• ❌ Ich fahre mit die Bahn. → ✅ Ich fahre mit der Bahn. — mit takes the dative, so feminine die becomes der.
• ❌ Der Kinder spielen draußen. → ✅ Die Kinder spielen draußen. — in the plural every gender uses die as the subject form.

Related

Compare the forms with ein/eine, and check the plural chapter for how die Kinder, die Männer and die Autos are built in the first place.