3

Has anybody come across reliable ways to know if a masculine noun is weak or not?

Der Präsident... Wir brauchen einen neuen Präsidenten.
Der Held... Gotham braucht einen Helden.

I have noticed that many weak masculine nouns tend to end with an 'e' when in nominative.

der Kunde, der Junge, der Name, der Bote....

I have also read about nouns coming from adjectives also being quite often the culprits for weak nouns.

Any other ideas?

Improve this question
3
  • I guess you should rather take a look at the genitive ending (des Präsidenten, des Helden – des Namens, des Glaubens) – Em1 Apr 1 '14 at 20:13
  • How does that help me know if its a weak noun to begin with though? Your idea seems to extend my point one further, by saying that nominative masculine nouns, ending with -e, tens to also get a -ns in the genitive. Or am I missing something? – n1k31t4 Apr 1 '14 at 20:26
  • Not quite. My point actually was that the genitive case is clearly distinguishable. However, if the link in the answer below is correct, you just take a look at the declension table and look for 7 -n endings (still, they don't say that the nominative singular must end in -e, for instance Astronaut). Actually, in conclusion that seconds my first comment. – Em1 Apr 1 '14 at 20:55
2

This page says that nearly all common masculine nouns ending in -e are weak (with the exception of Käse), though some retain their genetive -s ending after the -n-. That sounds like a pretty reliable criterion.

This page gives some (non-reliable, but helpful) categories for weak nouns.

All the adjectives that form masculine weak nouns I can think of right now end in -e, so I'm not sure if that is useful as an extra criterion.

Improve this answer
1
  • Please try to summarize the main points of links you provided, in case they go offline. for more information, see How to Answer – Vogel612 Apr 2 '14 at 11:13
1

Weak masculine nouns are:

  1. Masculine nouns that end in an unstressed -e:

    der Jude, der Löwe, der Erbe.

  2. Nouns of foreign origin that have their accent on the final syllable (-ant, -ast, -ent, -et, -ist, -nom, -oph, -ot, etc.):

    der Polizist, der Assistent, der Philosoph, der Despot, der Astronom, der Gymnasiast.

  3. Some one-syllable masculine nouns that designate male persons or animals:

    der Bär, der Christ, der Mensch, der Prinz, der Narr, der Bauer.

  4. "der Herr" which takes an -n ending in the singular and -en in the plural
Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.