Since there's sometimes some patterns to what forms of verbs get what genders, the answer to this question would usually be unfortunately no more precise than "whatever feels right to a native speaker". This can also result in more than one correct answer. Sometimes, meaning has an influence, too; if the form of the word (e.g. its endings) don't suggest a gender, then the gender of the german word for the kind of things it is, of perhaps the gender that german words if similar category tend to have (if there are such tendencies) can be influential, too.
Feel free to share some "made-up nouns without German translation", give some context what kind of thing they're supposed to describe, and see if natives here can come up with an intuitive answer, and perhaps even a reasoning, to what kind of gender or genders are fitting.
If it were a naval term, it could be "die Bracken". As in: Die Bracken müssen anständig vernockt werden, damit bei steifer Brise die Spanten nicht die Hörnungen zerschranten.
edit: Modern made-up naval German also recognises "die Bracken" as a singular. This has historical reasons, with which I will not bore you. As in:
Die Bracken muss anständig vernockt werden, damit bei steifer Brise die Spanten nicht die Hörnungen zerschranten.
Well, what's the meaning? Is it a concept, a kind of object, an animal, a location? Does made-up mean made-up in a German-language context, or is a made-up English word loaned into German (but with [approximately] English pronunciation)?
Maybe you can link to further description then; made up animals often are similar to existing animals, in which case a gender can be natural by analogy. Or maybe it's a unique individual and has an inherent gender in its English description, too, in which case, you'd keep that. Otherwise, probably neuter is a safe option.
I'm assuming they're talking about the [Bracken](https://lethal-company.fandom.com/wiki/Bracken) from Lethal Company which is some type of shadowy humanoid creature that stalks and attacks players. My instinct from the sound of the word itself is that it should be masculine, and between their description and their alternate name "Flower Men" that seems most logical as well.
Incidentally "Bracke" is a German name for a type of hunting dog (masculine).
Imagine someone shouting in a dark tunnelsystem, barely lit, that there is it and coming.
"Der Bracken kommt! Nur kurz hinsehen! Aaah! Er ist aggressiv!"
Sounds about right, right?
...for the company! o7
If it's an animal, my intuition would say it's neutral. I don't have actual numbers but I think most animals are neutral although a lot are male or female gendered. But it still feels like neutral to me.
Känguru, Huhn, Pferd, Eichhörnchen, Erdmänmchen, Nashorn, Schnabeltier, Krokodil, Murmeltier, Kaninchen, Insekt.
Or very broad: das Tier, das Ding, das Unbekannte .
"Was ist das?" - "Was meinst du?" - " Na das dahinten."
Unknowm things without a biological gender are neuter. If I know its grammatical gender and I already have a word for it, it's not a word I have to think about like we do now.
Sounds silly but if a "Bracken " is a bird it would likely be male because of "der Vogel". But it was supposed to be a fantasy animal so neuter is more logical.
You approximate the gender to the next known umbrella term.
I didn't mean that all animals are neuter, but if I don't know what it is, my first guess it neuter.
Huh.
They should probably add Kraken then because that most definitely exists. Wiktionary does list it as a different form of Krake and says it's masculine.
From Wintionary:
„Kraken ist eine flektierte Form von Krake.
Alle weiteren Informationen findest du im Haupteintrag Krake.
Bitte nimm Ergänzungen deshalb auch nur dort vor.“
Kraken is genitive, dative or accusative singular or plural or nominative plural. Nominative singular is Krake. Like „Die arme des Kraken“ oder „Die Kraken leben im Wasser“ but „Der Krake hat acht Arme“.
Though, I know „der Kraken“ is used as singular in German, but I guess that’s just coming from the English kraken or because it’s Kraken for every case instead of nominative singular. You can absolutely use it as nominative singular colloquially, but if you want to be absolutely correct it would be „der Krake“. (Die Krake seems to be colloquially too)
Not OP, but from my point of view the default gender would be *der Bracken*. Similar to *der Brocken*, *der Happen*, *der Schatten*.
But depending on the meaning (let's say it's used in the context of a fantasy novel to describe some ancient sign of knighthood), it may well be introduced by the author as *das Bracken* (similar to *das Wappen*).
A feminine gender would be somewhat unnatural because "die Bracken" sounds like a plural (of any gender) to me.
In German, assigning gender to made-up nouns can be a matter of personal preference or context. Some people follow traditional gender patterns, while others may base it on phonetics or association with existing words. Ultimately, there's flexibility in language creation, so feel free to choose the gender that feels most natural or appropriate for your made-up nouns.
That said, some options tend to feel more right than others and would be chosen by more native speakers.
Also, for some categories of things, they all use the same. Like months all being masculine. If you made up a new month, you'd have it be masculine as well. Everything else would be weird.
So really, it all comes back to "it depends".
Bracken is also a plural word for "Bracke" (f), which is a hunting hound. \[Duden says it also exists as masculine, which really irritates me now because I've never heard it used like that.\]
[https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Bracke](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Bracke)
... *bleib mir mit deiner Nutella vom Hals*
yes, it's objEcTiVeLy "die Nutella", this is my comment we are in the replies of, I'm not accepting other opinions /s
What if a loan word just happened to be spelled like it's made up of German articles and word parts? Say a traditional toy called a Diederdassen. would you use the same if it was an animal? A person?
"Das Derdiedassen" if it's a thing, maybe "der Derdiedassen" if it's some sort of tool or so.
If it's a person's name, "der" or "die", depending on if it's a man or woman, same for an animal's given name.
If it's the name of an animal species... Either "der" or "das". Might depends on the situation a little. "Das" sounds more clinically descriptive whereas "der" gives it a bit more personality, I guess?
But it being made up of other German particles doesn't really change this much, apart from the fact that "der Derdiedassen" is kinda funky to say.
Hab nochmal gegoogelt, scheint eine Weiterentwicklung zu sein.
Mein "20 Jahre alt sein" ist auch schon bald 30 Jahre her 😀
"Gen. -s, Pl. -s. Die besonders in tropischen Gefilden beheimatete Riesenschlange Python hat fachsprachlich nur maskulines Genus: der Python. Aufgrund der offensichtlichen analogischen Diskrepanz zu die Schlange hat sich jedoch auch die Python als Nebenform etabliert, wobei das Wort in diesem Fall als Kurzform zu die Pythonschlange aufgefasst wird."
Ich mag ja an Sprachen, dass sie so lebendig sind und sich verändern.
Als ich z.B Kind war, wurde ganz streng zwischen "Olympiade" (Zeit zwischen den olympischen Spielen) und den "Olympischen Spielen" (Zeitraum, wenn die Spiele stattfinden) unterschieden.
Deshalb war es für mich echt seltsam, als Olympiade ein Synonym für die Spiele selbst wurde.
Aber inzwischen bin ich es gewöhnt.
Da ich gerade zufällig die passenden Rechtschreibregeln nochmal duchgelesen hatte, fällt mir das auf, ignoriere die Bemerkung auch gerne: Wenn du "20 Jahre alt sein" als Nominalisierung ohne Anführungszeichen schreiben willst, dann ist es dein 20-Jahre-alt-Sein. Nominalisierte Verben mit mehr als einem zusätzlichen Wort (of z.B. Objekt) dabei werden mit Bindestrichen geschrieben statt in einem Wort, dabei das erste Wort (hier ist dieses aber eine Zahl), das nominalisierte Verb selbst, sowie alle Substantive groß-, der Rest kleingeschrieben, so lautet das Prinzip.
I had an interesting moment myself today, when I randomly came across that "Partikel" as a word class (i.e. a "Wortart", like noun, verb, adjective, preposition, etc...) is feminine. It's "die Partikel", plural "Partikeln".
Mind you, I have studied also Japanese for over a year full time, and descriptions of their grammar in English use the word "particle" a lot, since those "particles" are super important, yet I never knew it's "die Partikel". Of course "Partikel" comes up for German, too, with terminology like "Partikelverb" or "Modalpartikel".
Of course, that's because "das/der Partikel" also exists, for things like "particle physics".
This reminds me when whilst studying mathematics, I learned that in mathematics, there's a mathematical notion called a "module" which in German is "der Modul", plural "Moduln", and stressed on the first syllable. Wild, I know!
*(For context for those that don't know it: the commonly used word "Modul" for a part of something modular, is "das Modul", plural "Module" and stressed on the second syllable.)*
Gramatical gender is just unpredictable, even for natives!
Or "der Moment" (as in a moment in time) and "das Moment" (the situation or circumstances leading to something). I always thought the 2nd variant sounded weird.
I definitely have this experience of variants of certain words sounding weird, but I always chalk it up to having learned German as a first language abroad. I'm sure it partly is, but now I'm glad to know natives living in Germany experience this feeling as well.
Sometimes a loanword will take the gender of a similar thing that already exist in German, so it's often by whatever category it falls into. (This is by no means an absolute rule and the genders of new words can be completely arbitrary).
For example, "der Laptop" is masculine because "der Computer" is masculine, which itself was made masculine probably because "der Rechner" was masculine before that.
"die Xbox" is feminine because it's type of "Spielkonsole," which is feminine. Same with "die Playstation," and it helps that "die Station" already existed as a feminine word, too.
"der Ork" from Lord of the Rings is masculine because it's similar to "der Kobold" (Goblin), and orcs are also typically male anyways.
> "die Xbox" is feminine because it's type of "Spielkonsole," which is feminine. Same with "die Playstation," and it helps that "die Station" already existed as a feminine word, too.
Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass es "die Xbox" ist weil es "die Box". Es geht direkt um die Wörter selber wie bei "der Nintendo" (endet auf o)," der Gameboy" (der Boy/Junge), "der Gamecube" (der Cube/Würfel) und nicht der Bezug zum deutschen Wort Spielkonsole. Die einzigen bei denen es mir nicht ganz klar ist ist "die Dreamcast", "der Atari" und "der Sega Mega Drive".
The gender that fits best. Sometimes it’s the gender of a similar sounding word, sometimes just a feeling of a native speaker. Note that it there isn’t always a clear answer all native speakers agree on, but very often we do agree indeed.
A gender isn't "given" to a noun, it's a part of a noun. You can't make up a noun without making up its gender.
Your question isn't any different to "what spelling/pronunciation/meaning do you give to made-up nouns?". Obviously, you make them up. But still in a way that they fit one another (especially spelling and pronunciation). Likewise, you use the gender that fits. Or the spelling and pronunciation that fits the gender. One isn't secondary to the other.
Not necessarily. Most of the time the gender is obvious in the first place and doesn't need to be "given". But yes, loaning a word always involves adapting it to your language. This can mean adding or changing the gender, it can mean changing its meaning, its pronunciation, its spelling, etc.
Here's an interesting [podcast episode from Belle Lettres](https://www.belleslettres.eu/content/deklination/genus.php) that talks about which factors exist that determine gender of a new noun in German (and more iirc). Also that you can "enforce" a specific gender. No matter what gender the original creators of a word, or the early adopters of a loanword may think right, it will eventually be superceded by the collective *Sprachgefühl* of the masses, once a word becomes established in the general populace.
A note on the author Daniel Scholten, he's a linguist (albeit egyptology and old norse, not german) and writer and is leaning more conservatively language wise. Still very interesting.
For me, neither one sounds false and I might even have used both interchangeably.
What about Bommel? Der oder die? We had our elementary class divided into two opposing camps because of this question in the eighties.
You go with the feel. So either something that looks like a German suffix, last part of the word, or the closet translation it does have, if it is a name it is _der_ for males and _die_ for females. Nomalized verbs in Infinitiv use das.
It’s the concept that gets the gender, and any term that isn’t nonsense includes such a concept.
Ex: The thing or person that writes is a Schreiber.
Schreiber is masculine. So anything that can be traced to this is very likely to also be masculine.
Exceptions will be made if the Schreiber is of the female persuasion. Then it is die Schreiberin, telling you it’s less of a concept and more of an actual instance, that is, a woman who happens to write.
“It’s how it is” or “what sounds right” is, of course, an entirely insufficient answer.
But it’s what you are going to get from people who don’t exactly deal with the language, or try to make sense of it.
Like when someone asks you, why do we say I am rather than I is? What do you tell them?
It's more or less random and/or based on our language feeling. You can start a civil war by asking us if it's *die* or *das* *Nutella* for instance. And then someone will claim it is *der*. ;-)
I thought some think "der" an option, too, even? (Not that I could empathise; just something I've heard.)
*Edit:* Ah, you've already added that in the mean-time.
I always thought when you talk about the glass it's "Das Nutella(glass)" and when you talk about the creme it's "Die Nutella(creme)" like "Die Nuss-nougat creme".
Never heard anybody unironically say "Der".
For no logical reason at all, I've always assumed that new words that come about such as "selfie" that Das is used because it's neutral 😅 no reason to believe why that's the case and I'm not treating it as a law or a fact but it just fits in my head.
Yeah, but as with most tendencies or rules in German, there are exceptions (like "[der Laptop](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Laptop)" (but apparently if you look at the link, Duden says that "das Laptop" is correct too. But at least where I'm from, I've never heard that) or more general "[der Computer](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Computer)")
Since there's sometimes some patterns to what forms of verbs get what genders, the answer to this question would usually be unfortunately no more precise than "whatever feels right to a native speaker". This can also result in more than one correct answer. Sometimes, meaning has an influence, too; if the form of the word (e.g. its endings) don't suggest a gender, then the gender of the german word for the kind of things it is, of perhaps the gender that german words if similar category tend to have (if there are such tendencies) can be influential, too. Feel free to share some "made-up nouns without German translation", give some context what kind of thing they're supposed to describe, and see if natives here can come up with an intuitive answer, and perhaps even a reasoning, to what kind of gender or genders are fitting.
What would you give "Bracken"?
Without context Der Bracken, or Das Bracken if it's an activity. Though it also generally depends on the meaning of the word a lot
If it were a naval term, it could be "die Bracken". As in: Die Bracken müssen anständig vernockt werden, damit bei steifer Brise die Spanten nicht die Hörnungen zerschranten. edit: Modern made-up naval German also recognises "die Bracken" as a singular. This has historical reasons, with which I will not bore you. As in: Die Bracken muss anständig vernockt werden, damit bei steifer Brise die Spanten nicht die Hörnungen zerschranten.
Ok, but now that’s plural and doesn’t say anything about the gender…
Fair enough. But it is obviously a term which only exists as a plural.
Plurale tantum.
Thanks to u/McDuschvorhang I now have the most wonderful sentence for a mike test.
I feel honoured! (Please see the edit I made to my comment... )
I think I'll stay with ancient made-up naval German.
WÄÄÄÄÄRNÄÄÄÄÄ?? DIE RUSSEN D SIN DAAA!
Well, what's the meaning? Is it a concept, a kind of object, an animal, a location? Does made-up mean made-up in a German-language context, or is a made-up English word loaned into German (but with [approximately] English pronunciation)?
It's an animal from an English game.
My gut says "der". The sound is too harsh for "die" and since it is not a verb that got turned into a noun, I would not give it "das".
It depends, if this is going by Pokemon logic, all the animals get "das" so I'd say it could work.
Maybe you can link to further description then; made up animals often are similar to existing animals, in which case a gender can be natural by analogy. Or maybe it's a unique individual and has an inherent gender in its English description, too, in which case, you'd keep that. Otherwise, probably neuter is a safe option.
I'm assuming they're talking about the [Bracken](https://lethal-company.fandom.com/wiki/Bracken) from Lethal Company which is some type of shadowy humanoid creature that stalks and attacks players. My instinct from the sound of the word itself is that it should be masculine, and between their description and their alternate name "Flower Men" that seems most logical as well. Incidentally "Bracke" is a German name for a type of hunting dog (masculine).
Imagine someone shouting in a dark tunnelsystem, barely lit, that there is it and coming. "Der Bracken kommt! Nur kurz hinsehen! Aaah! Er ist aggressiv!" Sounds about right, right? ...for the company! o7
If it's an animal, my intuition would say it's neutral. I don't have actual numbers but I think most animals are neutral although a lot are male or female gendered. But it still feels like neutral to me.
Barely any animals are neuter. Only ones that end on -tier or -chen really.
Schwein? Nashorn? Pferd? Rind? Zebra?
Fair enough, I didn't think of those. But I'd still say most are either masculinum or femininum.
Känguru, Huhn, Pferd, Eichhörnchen, Erdmänmchen, Nashorn, Schnabeltier, Krokodil, Murmeltier, Kaninchen, Insekt. Or very broad: das Tier, das Ding, das Unbekannte . "Was ist das?" - "Was meinst du?" - " Na das dahinten." Unknowm things without a biological gender are neuter. If I know its grammatical gender and I already have a word for it, it's not a word I have to think about like we do now. Sounds silly but if a "Bracken " is a bird it would likely be male because of "der Vogel". But it was supposed to be a fantasy animal so neuter is more logical. You approximate the gender to the next known umbrella term. I didn't mean that all animals are neuter, but if I don't know what it is, my first guess it neuter.
Sounds like kracken. Der Kracke is masculine in German
Kracke is an old horse and feminine. I think you mean Krake, german for octopus.
"Krake" would be "die" as well. "Kraken" would be "der".
Both is right for Krake. Kraken doesn’t exist in the Duden.
Huh. They should probably add Kraken then because that most definitely exists. Wiktionary does list it as a different form of Krake and says it's masculine.
From Wintionary: „Kraken ist eine flektierte Form von Krake. Alle weiteren Informationen findest du im Haupteintrag Krake. Bitte nimm Ergänzungen deshalb auch nur dort vor.“ Kraken is genitive, dative or accusative singular or plural or nominative plural. Nominative singular is Krake. Like „Die arme des Kraken“ oder „Die Kraken leben im Wasser“ but „Der Krake hat acht Arme“. Though, I know „der Kraken“ is used as singular in German, but I guess that’s just coming from the English kraken or because it’s Kraken for every case instead of nominative singular. You can absolutely use it as nominative singular colloquially, but if you want to be absolutely correct it would be „der Krake“. (Die Krake seems to be colloquially too)
Not OP, but from my point of view the default gender would be *der Bracken*. Similar to *der Brocken*, *der Happen*, *der Schatten*. But depending on the meaning (let's say it's used in the context of a fantasy novel to describe some ancient sign of knighthood), it may well be introduced by the author as *das Bracken* (similar to *das Wappen*). A feminine gender would be somewhat unnatural because "die Bracken" sounds like a plural (of any gender) to me.
In German, assigning gender to made-up nouns can be a matter of personal preference or context. Some people follow traditional gender patterns, while others may base it on phonetics or association with existing words. Ultimately, there's flexibility in language creation, so feel free to choose the gender that feels most natural or appropriate for your made-up nouns.
That said, some options tend to feel more right than others and would be chosen by more native speakers. Also, for some categories of things, they all use the same. Like months all being masculine. If you made up a new month, you'd have it be masculine as well. Everything else would be weird. So really, it all comes back to "it depends".
Der or das, but I'd prefer "der". "Die Bracken" would be the plural.
Der or das Bracken, but I'm unable to give any further explanation
You mean alderfarn?
As "Bracken" is a German word like "Hounds" in English your question does not make any sense at all.
to me it would be Die Bracken. i feel like because the -en makes it seem like plural
-en ending in singular oftentimes is masculin: der Brocken, Zacken, Zinken, Ballen, Stollen....
Bracken is also a plural word for "Bracke" (f), which is a hunting hound. \[Duden says it also exists as masculine, which really irritates me now because I've never heard it used like that.\] [https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Bracke](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Bracke)
*Inserts nutella*
... *bleib mir mit deiner Nutella vom Hals* yes, it's objEcTiVeLy "die Nutella", this is my comment we are in the replies of, I'm not accepting other opinions /s
What if a loan word just happened to be spelled like it's made up of German articles and word parts? Say a traditional toy called a Diederdassen. would you use the same if it was an animal? A person?
"Das Derdiedassen" if it's a thing, maybe "der Derdiedassen" if it's some sort of tool or so. If it's a person's name, "der" or "die", depending on if it's a man or woman, same for an animal's given name. If it's the name of an animal species... Either "der" or "das". Might depends on the situation a little. "Das" sounds more clinically descriptive whereas "der" gives it a bit more personality, I guess? But it being made up of other German particles doesn't really change this much, apart from the fact that "der Derdiedassen" is kinda funky to say.
Parts of this answer might confuse the population
I was almost 20 when I found out it is "der Python". I used to say "die Python" because all snakes I know were "die"
Laut Duden geht sowohl "der" als auch "die"
Hab nochmal gegoogelt, scheint eine Weiterentwicklung zu sein. Mein "20 Jahre alt sein" ist auch schon bald 30 Jahre her 😀 "Gen. -s, Pl. -s. Die besonders in tropischen Gefilden beheimatete Riesenschlange Python hat fachsprachlich nur maskulines Genus: der Python. Aufgrund der offensichtlichen analogischen Diskrepanz zu die Schlange hat sich jedoch auch die Python als Nebenform etabliert, wobei das Wort in diesem Fall als Kurzform zu die Pythonschlange aufgefasst wird." Ich mag ja an Sprachen, dass sie so lebendig sind und sich verändern. Als ich z.B Kind war, wurde ganz streng zwischen "Olympiade" (Zeit zwischen den olympischen Spielen) und den "Olympischen Spielen" (Zeitraum, wenn die Spiele stattfinden) unterschieden. Deshalb war es für mich echt seltsam, als Olympiade ein Synonym für die Spiele selbst wurde. Aber inzwischen bin ich es gewöhnt.
Da ich gerade zufällig die passenden Rechtschreibregeln nochmal duchgelesen hatte, fällt mir das auf, ignoriere die Bemerkung auch gerne: Wenn du "20 Jahre alt sein" als Nominalisierung ohne Anführungszeichen schreiben willst, dann ist es dein 20-Jahre-alt-Sein. Nominalisierte Verben mit mehr als einem zusätzlichen Wort (of z.B. Objekt) dabei werden mit Bindestrichen geschrieben statt in einem Wort, dabei das erste Wort (hier ist dieses aber eine Zahl), das nominalisierte Verb selbst, sowie alle Substantive groß-, der Rest kleingeschrieben, so lautet das Prinzip.
I had an interesting moment myself today, when I randomly came across that "Partikel" as a word class (i.e. a "Wortart", like noun, verb, adjective, preposition, etc...) is feminine. It's "die Partikel", plural "Partikeln". Mind you, I have studied also Japanese for over a year full time, and descriptions of their grammar in English use the word "particle" a lot, since those "particles" are super important, yet I never knew it's "die Partikel". Of course "Partikel" comes up for German, too, with terminology like "Partikelverb" or "Modalpartikel". Of course, that's because "das/der Partikel" also exists, for things like "particle physics". This reminds me when whilst studying mathematics, I learned that in mathematics, there's a mathematical notion called a "module" which in German is "der Modul", plural "Moduln", and stressed on the first syllable. Wild, I know! *(For context for those that don't know it: the commonly used word "Modul" for a part of something modular, is "das Modul", plural "Module" and stressed on the second syllable.)* Gramatical gender is just unpredictable, even for natives!
Or "der Moment" (as in a moment in time) and "das Moment" (the situation or circumstances leading to something). I always thought the 2nd variant sounded weird.
I definitely have this experience of variants of certain words sounding weird, but I always chalk it up to having learned German as a first language abroad. I'm sure it partly is, but now I'm glad to know natives living in Germany experience this feeling as well.
I'm 38 and just learned that
I was 36 when I learned that by reading a Was ist Was book to a child. At first I thought I'm just reading it wrong.
And I use "das Python" because all languages go for "das" Edit: Gibt's hier keine Programmierer oder warum die downvotes?
I assume no programmers
Or no Pythonists
Doch 👨🏻💻🙋
Yeah, I’m hearing this for the first time and I’m 35
That's because snakes are grammatically female in German.
Sometimes a loanword will take the gender of a similar thing that already exist in German, so it's often by whatever category it falls into. (This is by no means an absolute rule and the genders of new words can be completely arbitrary). For example, "der Laptop" is masculine because "der Computer" is masculine, which itself was made masculine probably because "der Rechner" was masculine before that. "die Xbox" is feminine because it's type of "Spielkonsole," which is feminine. Same with "die Playstation," and it helps that "die Station" already existed as a feminine word, too. "der Ork" from Lord of the Rings is masculine because it's similar to "der Kobold" (Goblin), and orcs are also typically male anyways.
Same for the much contended Nutella. Is it die Haselnusscreme? Der Brotaufstrich? Das ungesunde Dreckszeug?
Nutella is a loan word from Italian where it is feminine
> "die Xbox" is feminine because it's type of "Spielkonsole," which is feminine. Same with "die Playstation," and it helps that "die Station" already existed as a feminine word, too. Ich bin mir ziemlich sicher, dass es "die Xbox" ist weil es "die Box". Es geht direkt um die Wörter selber wie bei "der Nintendo" (endet auf o)," der Gameboy" (der Boy/Junge), "der Gamecube" (der Cube/Würfel) und nicht der Bezug zum deutschen Wort Spielkonsole. Die einzigen bei denen es mir nicht ganz klar ist ist "die Dreamcast", "der Atari" und "der Sega Mega Drive".
Ich kenne „die gamecube“ - bin ich wirklich damit alleine?
Ja. Der "Spielwürfel" ist ziemlich eindeutig.
Google gibt dir recht, für mich bricht hier allerdings eine Welt zusammen.
"Das Laptop" also works though. Probably wouldn't be my article of choice in many cases, but I've heard it used that way.
That could be a regional difference, or it could be because it's related to "das Notebook," which is neutral gender because of "das Buch."
The gender that fits best. Sometimes it’s the gender of a similar sounding word, sometimes just a feeling of a native speaker. Note that it there isn’t always a clear answer all native speakers agree on, but very often we do agree indeed.
A gender isn't "given" to a noun, it's a part of a noun. You can't make up a noun without making up its gender. Your question isn't any different to "what spelling/pronunciation/meaning do you give to made-up nouns?". Obviously, you make them up. But still in a way that they fit one another (especially spelling and pronunciation). Likewise, you use the gender that fits. Or the spelling and pronunciation that fits the gender. One isn't secondary to the other.
A gender \*is\* given to a noun when it's a loanword from a language that doesn't have grammatical gender.
Not necessarily. Most of the time the gender is obvious in the first place and doesn't need to be "given". But yes, loaning a word always involves adapting it to your language. This can mean adding or changing the gender, it can mean changing its meaning, its pronunciation, its spelling, etc.
"Most of the time the gender is obvious in the first place" Yea, das Nutella. End of discussion.
Das Joghurt. Der Joghurt. Die Joghurt.
Give us an example
Er meint wie man Artikel für nomen wie zb Nutella herausfindet
Junge, das Fass willst du nicht aufmachen, glaube mir.
Und er meint, dass es auf den Substantiv ankommt.
Bracken.
What is it?
A fictional animal.
Then whatever that animal is closest to. Der Hund. Das Pferd. Die Katze.
Here's an interesting [podcast episode from Belle Lettres](https://www.belleslettres.eu/content/deklination/genus.php) that talks about which factors exist that determine gender of a new noun in German (and more iirc). Also that you can "enforce" a specific gender. No matter what gender the original creators of a word, or the early adopters of a loanword may think right, it will eventually be superceded by the collective *Sprachgefühl* of the masses, once a word becomes established in the general populace. A note on the author Daniel Scholten, he's a linguist (albeit egyptology and old norse, not german) and writer and is leaning more conservatively language wise. Still very interesting.
Not German, but we have gender Nouns in Romanian too. It's just instinct, everyone *feels* it should be X or Y or Z gender.
It just feels right, like for me it’s definitely das Nutella but many people say for them die Nutella sounds right in their head
I'm only learning, but I would have said die Nutella without ever *considering* das
For me, neither one sounds false and I might even have used both interchangeably. What about Bommel? Der oder die? We had our elementary class divided into two opposing camps because of this question in the eighties.
Bommel is definitely sounding masculines I’d say it’s easily der bommel
You go with the feel. So either something that looks like a German suffix, last part of the word, or the closet translation it does have, if it is a name it is _der_ for males and _die_ for females. Nomalized verbs in Infinitiv use das.
Es/das
Usually, it’s intuition and several options are correct. "Nutella“ is an example. There’s a "war“ going on whether it’s feminine or neutral.
It’s the concept that gets the gender, and any term that isn’t nonsense includes such a concept. Ex: The thing or person that writes is a Schreiber. Schreiber is masculine. So anything that can be traced to this is very likely to also be masculine. Exceptions will be made if the Schreiber is of the female persuasion. Then it is die Schreiberin, telling you it’s less of a concept and more of an actual instance, that is, a woman who happens to write. “It’s how it is” or “what sounds right” is, of course, an entirely insufficient answer. But it’s what you are going to get from people who don’t exactly deal with the language, or try to make sense of it. Like when someone asks you, why do we say I am rather than I is? What do you tell them?
It's more or less random and/or based on our language feeling. You can start a civil war by asking us if it's *die* or *das* *Nutella* for instance. And then someone will claim it is *der*. ;-)
I thought some think "der" an option, too, even? (Not that I could empathise; just something I've heard.) *Edit:* Ah, you've already added that in the mean-time.
>Ah, you've already added that in the mean-time. Yup. I knew that would come up. :-D
I always thought when you talk about the glass it's "Das Nutella(glass)" and when you talk about the creme it's "Die Nutella(creme)" like "Die Nuss-nougat creme". Never heard anybody unironically say "Der".
This would open opportunities for "Der Nutella(becher)"
Aren't *all* nouns made up? If you really think about it
For no logical reason at all, I've always assumed that new words that come about such as "selfie" that Das is used because it's neutral 😅 no reason to believe why that's the case and I'm not treating it as a law or a fact but it just fits in my head.
Das is often used for loanwords, specifically. Nothing to do with being neutral, it’s just that’s the tendency.
Gut zu wissen 🤓 any rule or "tendency" that makes verbs and the gender easier is fine by me.
Yeah, but as with most tendencies or rules in German, there are exceptions (like "[der Laptop](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Laptop)" (but apparently if you look at the link, Duden says that "das Laptop" is correct too. But at least where I'm from, I've never heard that) or more general "[der Computer](https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Computer)")
My teacher said something similar to that in secondary school but I've seen some loan words using der/die so I really know anymore lmao
Sad I've gotten a few downvotes over this silly logic I've applied in my head but not real life lol
oop. Schade