Nouns
die Substantive
German nouns (Substantive) are the words that name things; they are always capitalised and carry a gender: das Haus, die Haustür.
Every German noun starts with a capital letter — even in the middle of a sentence. English only capitalises names, so your eye keeps catching on it. Here: how to spot a noun, why the last part of a compound gives the article, and why you learn the plural together with the noun.
Capital letters — no exceptions
ShortcutThe article of a compound noun comes from its last word: das Haus + die Tür = die Haustür.
German is almost the only major language that writes nouns with a capital letter even in the middle of a sentence. It is not decoration: as you read, your eye finds where each noun begins, which is a real help in long sentences.
Ich kaufe Brot und Milch.
I’m buying bread and milk.
Ich kaufe brot und milch.
lower case — a spelling mistake
- Every noun is capitalised: der Tisch · die Liebe · das Wetter — concrete or abstract, it makes no difference.
- A verb used as a noun is capitalised too: das Essen (food, eating), das Lernen (learning).
- An adjective used as a noun as well: etwas Neues (something new), nichts Gutes.
- Adjectives, verbs and adverbs stay lower case: Das neue Buch ist gut.
- The formal Sie and Ihnen are capitalised — they are not nouns, but politeness works that way.
A noun comes as a set of three: article + word + plural
In English “table” is one piece of information. In German Tisch on its own is incomplete; without its article and plural you cannot use it in a sentence.
| In the dictionary | What it tells you | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| der Tisch, -e | masculine · plural -e | Der Tisch ist neu. · Die Tische sind neu. |
| das Buch, ¨-er | neuter · plural -er + Umlaut | Das Buch ist neu. · Die Bücher sind neu. |
| die Frau, -en | feminine · plural -en | Die Frau kommt. · Die Frauen kommen. |
The ¨ sign in a dictionary means “an Umlaut appears in the plural”. Learn the word as a set of three: article + word + plural. Collecting them one by one later is much harder.
The rules for reading the article off the end of a word are on the der · die · das page, and the five plural types are on the plural page.
Compound nouns — German’s power tool
It is not that German loves long words; it makes words. Writing two nouns side by side to build a new noun is allowed, and people do it constantly in everyday speech.
| Parts | Compound | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| das Haus + die Tür | die Haustür | front door |
| die Hand + der Schuh | der Handschuh | glove — literally “hand shoe” |
| der Bus + die Haltestelle | die Bushaltestelle | bus stop — the article comes from the last word |
| die Arbeit + der Platz | der Arbeitsplatz | workplace — an -s- slipped in between |
| der Kühlschrank | kühl + Schrank | fridge — literally “cool cupboard” |
The golden rule: the LAST word decides the article. das Haus + die Tür = die Haustür, because the last word is Tür. The last word carries the meaning too: a Haustür is a door, not a house.
- You can decode a long word you have never seen by breaking it up: Krankenhaus = krank (sick) + Haus (house) → hospital.
- You can guess its article: if you know the last part, you know the article.
- Your vocabulary multiplies: once you know Zeit, Freizeit · Arbeitszeit · Zeitung are half solved.
Reading gender off the ending — three safe groups
| Article | Ending | Example |
|---|---|---|
| die | -ung · -heit · -keit · -schaft · -ion · -tät | die Zeitung · die Freiheit · die Möglichkeit · die Nation |
| das | -chen · -lein · -um · -ment | das Mädchen · das Brötchen · das Museum · das Dokument |
| der | -er · -ling · -ismus · -or | der Lehrer · der Frühling · der Motor |
The first row has almost no exceptions and covers a large part of everyday words: if a word ends in -ung, it is die.
What you just learned
Ich trinke jeden Morgen ___.
Show the answer
Kaffee. Nouns are capitalised even in the middle of a sentence.
das Haus + die Tür = ?
Show the answer
die Haustür. The last word always decides the article — here die Tür.
Why is die Zeitung die?
Show the answer
Because it ends in -ung — The -ung ending. The endings -ung · -heit · -keit · -schaft · -ion make a noun die with almost no exceptions.
Traps
Taking the article of a compound from the first word
English works the same way — the last word is the head: a “house door” is a door, not a house. The trap is that learners still grab the article of the first noun they recognise. In German the last word carries both the article and the meaning.
das Haustür
taken from Haus — wrong
die Haustür
taken from Tür — right
Writing a compound as separate words
In German a compound noun is written as one word, with no space or hyphen in between. The English habit of “front door”, “train station” makes mistakes here.
die Haus Tür
written apart
die Haustür
written together
Exception: when three or more parts pile up and become hard to read, a hyphen is accepted — Kaffee-Ersatz. It is not required.
Forgetting the linking -s- and -n-
Some compounds get a linking letter in the middle: Arbeitsplatz · Geburtstag · Sonnenbrille · Straßenbahn. Do not try to memorise a rule; learn the word as a whole.
Writing a verb used as a noun in lower case
The moment a verb is used like a noun it switches to a capital letter and takes das: Das Rauchen ist verboten. (Smoking is forbidden.) If the same word stays a verb, it is lower case: Er raucht.
Know this before the test
The core of the topic in three lines, then the mistakes people make most often.
- Every noun gets a capital letter
German’s signature: das Brot · die Milch. A noun written in lower case is a spelling mistake — even our own language checker flags it.
Ich kaufe Brot und Milch.
- Compound nouns are written TOGETHER
die Haustür · das Krankenhaus — splitting them into two words (die Haus Tür) is a mistake. The article comes from the last part.
das Haus + die Tür = die Haustür
- The ending tells you the article
-ung/-heit/-keit/-ion → die · -chen/-lein → das. Nouns without a rule are memorised with their article.
die Zeitung · das Mädchen
- An infinitive becomes a noun and takes das
das Rauchen · das Schwimmen — a noun made from a verb is always neuter and always capitalised.
Das Rauchen ist verboten.
ich kaufe brot und milch
Ich kaufe Brot und Milch.
Nouns are capitalised.
die Haus Tür
die Haustür
A compound noun is one word.
der Wohnung
die Wohnung
-ung is always die.
das rauchen ist verboten
Das Rauchen ist verboten.
A verb used as a noun is capitalised too.
Test yourself
Tap an answer — we will look at why together.
Which one is spelled correctly?
das Haus + die Tür = ?
house + door = front door
Why is die Zeitung die?
What does Krankenhaus mean?
Which one is wrong?
Das ist verboten. (smoking)
Practice done — –
To finish the topic, take the full test: score 60% and it is marked as done on your level path.
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Noun pocket card
This whole page — tables, traps, examples — as one PDF. Download it, print it, run through it before the exam.
Related topics
Noun plurals
die Bücher, die Autos
The German plural is the form a noun takes to name more than one thing: die Bücher, die Autos.
Akkusativ & Dativ
the full article table
Accusative vs dative: what actually changes, and what never moves at all.