9
votes
1answer
221 views

Warum heißt es “Ruderin”, nicht “Rudererin”?

Aus den Verben rudern und lehren ergeben sich Tätigkeitsbezeichnungen: Ein Mann ist Ruderer oder Lehrer. Eine Frau ist Ruderin oder Lehrerin. Naiv erwarte ich, dass die weibliche Form Rudererin ...
2
votes
1answer
344 views

How is the gender of new words established?

When words are borrowed into German, how is it decided what gender that word should be? I can think of examples with all three genders: der Latte, die Jeans, das Internet. Are there ever ...
15
votes
3answers
273 views

What gender has a “Virus”?

In German there is some confusion on the gender of "Virus" where both masculine and neuter are used: Das Influenzavirus ändert jährlich seine Oberflächenstruktur. Ich habe mir den Virus im ...
20
votes
4answers
236 views

Why do we have two equally used terms for “toe”?

There are two translations for toe that both are equally used. Both are pronounced almost the same but they have a different gender: der Zeh, m die Zehe, f What is the origin of this ...
53
votes
12answers
2k views

How can I learn noun genders better?

One of the things that I really liked about German, as I was studying it in college was the very orderly grammar, which actually helped me to understand my native English better. As a non-native ...