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About Stuart Anderson
Expertise
I've lived in, travelled around and written a lot about the German state of Bavaria over the past three years. I'd be happy to answer any questions about Bavaria, and in particular those to with Munich, travel to the region, history and local cuisine.

Experience
Three years living in Bavaria and studying German, as well as travelling around and reading a lot about the country.

Publications
-Two-and-a-half years experience at the Colac Herald (a regional Australian newspaper)as a staff journalist. -One year as a staff journalist at the Hume Leader newspaper (a suburban Melbourne paper). -Paid travel writing for websites travelfish.org, matadortravel.com and thelocal.de -I own and write http://www.destination-munich.com a travel website about Munich and Bavaria.

Education/Credentials
Bachelor of Science (Major: Psychology), Bachelor of Arts (Major: Literature), Batchelor of Letters (in Journalism) from Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.

You are here: Experts > Cultures > German Culture > Germany > german words

Germany - german words

Expert: Stuart Anderson - 10/26/2009

Question
hi, i'm chatty
i am studying german in school and i seem to notice that infront of most nouns, there is either: die, der or das. i asked my teacher why, but she couldn't really explain it. i was wondering if you could help me out with this. Thank you

Answer
Welcome to the wonderful world of German grammar Chatty!

The basic answer is that are all German words for "the".

You see, each German noun is assigned a "gender", either masculine (der), feminine (die) or neuter (das).
These words for "the" can change depending on where the noun occurs in the sentence, so you might also see words like "den", "dem" and "des". These also mean just "the" (or sometimes "to the" or "of the ").

Here's a good introduction to "der, die, and das" from the About.com website

http://german.about.com/library/anfang/blanfang03.htm

Have fun learning! One day you'll be able to have a conversation with someone in German and it will all be worthwhile.

Stuart

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