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The article determines the gender of a noun. There are the 3 genders in German: masculine (Maskulinum), feminine (Femininum), and neuter (Neutrum). Apart from that, a noun can also be plural. In that case the definite article is always die and there is no indefinite article.

Rules that define the article

To be able to speak German correctly, you have to know what article (gender) a noun has. There are some helpful rules that say what the gender of the noun is, e.g., the noun's ending, the fact that a noun belongs to a certain group of words, e.g., car brands, seasons, days of the week.

The die article

Most of the nouns ending with -e

Female human and animal beings

Words ending with -ung

Words ending with -heit

Words ending with -keit

Words ending with -schaft

Words ending with -tät

Words ending with -ur

Words ending with -ion

The words derived from a different language than German ending with -age/-ade

Words ending with -ik

Numbers

Motorcycle brands

Ship names

Aircraft names

Flower names

Words ending with -schrift

The words derived from a different language than German ending with: -anz, -enz, -ie

The der article

Male human and animal beings

Majority of the words ending with -or

Majority of the words ending with -ling except for the words derived from English ending with -ing e.g. (das Controlling)

Words ending with -ich except for those ending with -reich

Words ending with -ig

The words derived from a different language than German ending with -us

Times of the day

Seasons

Days of the week and months

Precipitations

Geographic directions

The das article

Words ending with -ment

Color names

Chemical elements

Words ending with -um

Words ending with -chen

The suffix -chen in German creates diminutives that are always neuter. There are also other words ending in -chen which are not diminutives and may have gender other than neuter.

Words ending with -lein

The words derived from English ending with -ing

The words derived from verbs in the infinitive form

The words derived from adjectives that refer to undefined things/people/concepts

Metal and material names

Names of hotels, cinemas and cafes

Types of articles

There are 3 types of articles in German: definite, indefinite, and zero article.

Definite article

It describes a specific noun, e.g. a thing, person, concept. The most accurate comparison to English is: "the" (vs "a"). We use it in the following situations:

When we can somehow define a noun or when the noun was mentioned in the previous sentence.

Referring to a particular thing/person by seeing, hearing or feeling it

For river, sea, and mountain names

Before the names of countries (but not all)

Before nouns of which there is only one in the world

Indefinite article

Describes an undefined noun, e.g. a thing, person, concept. The most accurate comparison to English is: "a" (vs "the"). There is no indefinite article for plural nouns. We use it in the following cases:

We use it when we talk about something for the first time.

In comparisons

The zero article

Sometimes a noun doesn't have an article (it has the zero article). We use the zero article in the following cases:

After words etwas (some), viel (much), wenig (little)

Before Herr (Mr) and Frau (Mrs.)

Before the names of countries (but not all)

Before the name of the nationality

Before the name of the profession

Before the names of indefinite materials

Before the names of cities (but not all)

After words describing measure, weight, and quantity

After cardinal numbers

Almost always after the preposition ohne and sometimes after the prepositions: nach, vor

Before indefinite plural nouns

Tips and tricks

• You should learn nouns together with articles. Without knowing the article, a sentence will sound awkward and moreover without it, you cannot really build a proper sentence in any grammatical case.
• Learn the rules which you can use to determine what article a noun has (this applies in particular to the die article, e.g. the suffixes -ung, -heit, -keit).