Der, die, das—Who Wins?

In German, all nouns have a gender, at least one of the three: der (masculine), die (feminine), or das (neuter). Which one gets the most nouns?

Tiger & Turtle sculpture in Duisburg

The masculine article takes nouns ending with –ismus (Optimismus, Kapitalismus), or with –ing (Zwilling = twin, Flüchtling = refugee) as well as terms of the weather (Wind, Sturm) or terms of the calendar (seasons, months, days) or alcoholic beverages (except Bier which is neuter) or brand names of cars (Mercedes, BMW). The feminine article takes nouns ending with –ung (Wohnung, Rechnung), –heit (Freiheit = freedom, Feinheit = fineness, subtlety), –schaft (Freundschaft = friendship), – keit (Höflichkeit = politeness), –ei (Bäckerei) as well as all names of trees and flowers (Eiche, Rose). The neuter article takes all nouns ending with –chen or –lein (diminuitive: Vögelchen, Engelein), –ment (Instrument), –fon (Telefon), –nis (Bildnis) as well as names of metals (Gold, Silber).

So, who won?

The winner is … the feminine article! According to the Duden, the official dictionary, 46 percent of all nouns are feminine, 34 percent are masculine, and 20 percent are neuter. Only 0.1 percent of all nouns do not need an article at all, e.g. Aids, Nahost (Middle East), Allerheiligen (All Saint’s Day).

German in Numbers

How many words has the German vocabulary? The Wortschatz (vocabulary; Wort = word; Schatz = treasure) changes constantly because ever-changing science, technology, media, and the influence of other cultures etc. bring us new words every day. 

The editors of the Duden, the official German dictionary, estimate a Wortschatz between 300.000 and 500.000 words. A Muttersprachler (native speaker) uses around 12.000 to 16.000 words, among them 3.500 Fremdwörter (foreign words). The passive vocabulary, meaning words a person understands but does not use, is much higher: 50.000. However, Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749 – 1832), our great poet and provider of lyrics for many Lieder, had a Wortschatz of 90.000 words, according to the Goethe-Wörterbuch, a project of four German universities.

The most recent entries in the Duden are Klubkultur (feminine) and the verb vertwittern. The noun Klubkultur describes all cultural phenomena associated with techno clubs, like the music itself, the influence the clubs have on the life of a city and its young generation, dance, certain clothing, etc. The word came up during the covid pandemic when all clubs had to be closed for many months which threatened this important part of cultural life in Germany The verb vertwittern stems from the name of the Twitter service and has two meanings:

vertwittern = to spread a message through Twitter; to tweed. And reflexive: sich vertwittern = to send erroneously flase information through Twitter.