• In this group of nouns, you will notice that the gender forms are completely predictable. The rule that animal young and small creatures tend to be neuter comes to the fore once more with Enkelkind.

Family Nouns
	Form of "the"	Noun	Plural Form	Meaning
1	derdiedas	Vater	Väter	father
2	derdiedas	Mutter	Mütter	woman
3	dasdieder	Bruder	Brüder	boy
4	diederdas	Schwester	Schwestern	sister
5	derdiedas	Großvater	Großväter	grandfather
6	derdasdie	Großmutter	Großmütter	grandmother
7	derdiedas	Onkel	Onkel	uncle
8	derdiedas	Tante	Tanten	aunt
9	dasdieder	Enkelkind	Enkelkinder	grandchild
10	derdiedas	Familie	Familien	family

 

Question 3: Animals Nouns in German

• About 90% of nouns ending in -e in German are feminine.

• Amongst the animal nouns, however, there is a significant group of exceptions to this rule, as illustrated below in the animals marked by *. These animal names, though ending in -e, are masculine. But not Katze!

• The rule about -chen endings being neuter is shown by Kaninchen.

• You may have noticed that both das Mädchen and das Kaninchen do not change in the plural form: die Mädchen and die Kaninchen. This is a steadfast rule that holds for every noun ending in the diminutive suffix -chen.

Question 4: Internet

Most computer words borrowed from English are masculine, but some relatively modern nouns, such as mobile phone (das Handy) and wifi (das WLAN), pronounced VAIR-LAHN, are neuter.