Rule for feminine · die

Nouns ending in -schaft

-schaft → die · no exceptions (1.1%)

The rule, in plain language

Every noun ending in -schaft is feminine and takes die - with no known exceptions. You'll spot the suffix easily: it's added to a base word to form an abstract or collective concept, as in die Mannschaft (team), die Wirtschaft (economy), or die Gesellschaft (society). It covers 1.1% of frequent nouns, so it isn't everywhere, but when it shows up the gender is guaranteed. This is one of the rare 100%-reliable German gender rules - learn it once and trust it forever.

In the A1-B1 vocabulary of the Genau course, this rule covers 26 words (1.1%) and has no exceptions.

Representative examples

All course words that follow this rule

Rules stick through practice. In the Genau app you train exactly this rule on its own words, with the GENAU! stamp on every correct answer - free, offline, no account. Coming soon to the App Store.