Rule for masculine · der

Nouns ending in -ich/-ig

-ich/-ig → der · 0.5% (exception: das Reich)

The rule, in plain language

Many nouns ending in -ich (and, with the same pronunciation, in -ig, as in König) are masculine: der Bereich, der Vergleich, der König. It covers 0.5% of frequent words, with the plural usually formed in -e (Bereiche, Vergleiche). The clear exceptions are das Reich (empire/realm) and its compound das Königreich (kingdom) - even though they share the same ending, they stay neuter because they're built around the word "Reich", which is itself neuter.

In the A1-B1 vocabulary of the Genau course, this rule covers 12 words (0.5%) and has 2 exceptions - all listed below.

Representative examples

The exceptions

These contradict the rule - learn them as-is:

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.