Table 11.
Gender assignment regularities for german, as identified by Wegener (1995)
| Regularity | Examples | Exceptions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | When unmarked, nouns ending in -e are feminine. | Hose (trousers.F), Jacke (jacket.F), Nase (nose.F) | Auge (eye.N), Ende (end.N), Löwe (lion.M) Käse (cheese.M) |
| 2 | When unmarked, monosyllabic nouns are masculine. | Kopf (head.M), Fuß (foot.M), Schrank (closet.M) | Hand (hand.F), Bein, (leg.N) |
| 3 | When unmarked, nouns ending in -el, -en, -er are masculine. | Löffel (spoon.M), Rücken (back.M), Finger (finger.M) | Messer (knife.N), Schulter (shoulder.F), Pendel (pendulum.N) Becken (basin.N, also pelvis.N) |
| 4 | The grammatical gender of labels for male and female creatures is masculine and feminine, respectively. | Mutter (mother.F), Vater (father.M) | Mädchen (see (2)) |
| 5 | In the case of derivational nouns, the derivational suffix determines the noun’s gender. | Krank-heit (ill-ness.F), Heiz-ung (heat-ing. F/heat-er. F) | Ergeb-nis (result.N), Erkenn-t-nis (insight.F) |
All examples and exceptions listed with regularities 1 to 3 and 5 are taken from Wegener (1995), except “Löffel”, “Messer”, and “Schrank”