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title, description, source, crawled
| title | description | source | crawled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Some Rules of Noun Formation | Common patterns for forming German nouns: -er occupational nouns, feminine -in endings, and the -ung, -heit, and -keit suffixes. | https://germanforenglishspeakers.com/nouns/some-rules-of-noun-formation | 2026-06-30 |
Some Rules of Noun Formation
Nouns that describe an occupation or a type of person are usually masculine. Many are formed by attaching an er ending to a verb or noun. These er nouns have no change in the plural:
| Stem | Masculine noun | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| die Musik (music) | der Musiker (male musician) | die Musiker |
| lehren (to teach) | der Lehrer (male teacher) | die Lehrer |
Even those that don't fit the er pattern tend to be masculine. But their plural forms can vary:
| Masculine noun | Plural |
|---|---|
| der Arzt (male doctor) | die Ärzte |
| der Matrose (sailor) | die Matrosen |
The feminine version is formed by adding an in, and it always has the same plural. With the non-"er" forms, they often add an umlaut:
| Masculine | Feminine | Feminine plural |
|---|---|---|
| der Musiker | die Musikerin | die Musikerinnen |
| der Lehrer | die Lehrerin | die Lehrerinnen |
| der Arzt | die Ärztin | die Ärztinnen |
| der Matrose | die Matrosin | die Matrosinnen |
Like many other languages, German is struggling a little to create modern gender-neutral noun forms; a construction like "Lehrer/in" is a common approach, but it doesn't always work: you can't say "Arzt/in," because you'd be leaving out the umlaut on the feminine form. Sometimes you'll also see the present participle, Lehrende: "[those who are] teaching."
A related problem in German is that there's no single form for a mixed-gender group. For example, speeches in East Germany often began with the awkward Liebe Genossen und Genossinnen: "Dear male comrades and female comrades."
There are many other standard noun formations, but for now we'll just cover two of the most common. The first is the ung ending, which converts a verb to a noun. These nouns are always feminine, they all have the same en plural, and they include some of the most common words in German:
| Verb | Noun | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| wohnen (to live) | die Wohnung (home, apartment) | die Wohnungen |
| zahlen (to pay) | die Zahlung (payment) | die Zahlungen |
| regieren (to rule, govern) | die Regierung (government) | die Regierungen |
| impfen (to vaccinate) | die Impfung (vaccination) | die Impfungen |
This looks like the English "ing" ending, but as you can see above, it rarely translates that way. And in the other direction, "-ing" verb forms in English (walking, talking) generally do not translate to "ung" nouns in German. See our sections on present participles, gerunds and the progressive aspect for more on this.
Finally, there are the endings heit and keit, which convert an adjective into a noun and roughly correspond to the English "ness." As with ung, these endings always make the noun feminine and always take an en plural:
| Adjective | Noun | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| krank (sick, ill) | die Krankheit (sickness, illness) | die Krankheiten |
| möglich (possible) | die Möglichkeit (possibility) | die Möglichkeiten |
| schwierig (difficult) | die Schwierigkeit (difficulty) | die Schwierigkeiten |