Hints to remember the gender of Luxembourgish nouns

IN Learning Tips, Level A1

In this lesson I wanted to answer a question I receive from many, many, many students:

How can I remember the gender of nouns?

I would love to tell you that there is a trick or a simple way of remembering what gender each noun is. Unfortunately noun genders are just one of those things you will have to learn on a case by case basis.

At first, it seems like an impossible task, because Luxembourgish has three genders – masculine, feminine and neuter. So as you go, you will inevitably make some mistakes, but that doesn’t really matter as long as you’ve got the basic ones right. That’s the most important.

📌Learning Tip📌

Whenever you learn a new word, the first thing to do is to ask “what’s the gender?” and actually write the word down with its gender.

You can guess the gender of many words using generalised rules:

The following nouns are always masculine:

The article for words in these categories is always de(n)* the or e(n)* a or an.

*In this lesson I only refer to the articles in the nominative & accusative case / den & en are subject to the n-rule

Days: Méindeg, Sonndeg …. – Monday, Sunday …

Months: Juli – July

Seasons: Summer, Hierscht, Wanter – summer, fall, winter. Exception: d’Fréijoer – spring

Directions: Süden, Norden, Westen, Osten – south, north, west, east

Weather: Reen, Schnéi, Niwwel – rain, snow, fog/mist

Names of cars and trains: den Audi, den Intercity, den TGV

Names of drinks: Wäin, Béier, Kaffi, Jus – beer, wine, coffee, juice

People who do something and most occupations:

Affekot – lawyer, Dokter – doctor, Verkeefer – seller / salesperson, Student – student

Note: that the feminine form of these terms almost (but not all) always ends in -in: Affekotin, Verkeeferin, Studentin, but Doktesch.

Nouns ending in –ismus:
Journalismus, Optimismus, Realismus (equal -ism words in English)

Nouns ending in –ist, iker:
Optimist, Jurist – legal expert, Techniker – technician, Akademiker – universtiy graduate

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The following nouns are always feminine:

The article for words in these categories is always d’ the or eng a or an.

Nouns ending in –heet, –keet:
Gesondheet – health, Fräiheet – freedom, Méiglechkeet – possibility, Schwieregkeet – difficulty

Nouns ending in –téit, –ung, –schaft:
Qualitéit – quality, Realitéit – reality, Zeitung – newspaper, Meenung – opinion Frëndschaft – friendship, Gesellschaft – society

Nouns ending in –ei:
Bäckerei – bakery, Bei – bee, Partei – party /political group
Nouns ending in –ie: Theorie – theory, Geographie, Industrie
Nouns ending in –ik: Grammatik – grammar, Klinik – hospital, Panik – panic, Kritik – criticism.
Nouns ending in –ioun: Situatioun – situation / job, Reunioun – meeting, Traditioun – tradition / custom

Nouns ending in –ur and –in: Natur, Kultur, Léierin – school teacher (female), Frëndin – friend (female)
but: Benzin – petrol

Most types of flowers and trees: Eech – oak, Rous – rose
but: Bam – tree

The following nouns are always neuter:

The article for words in these categories is always d’ the or e(n) a or an.

Nouns ending in –chen: Bréitchen – bun, Meedchen – girl, Männchen – stick figure

but: de(n) Puppelchen (masculine) – the baby

Infinitives used as nouns: d’ Iessen – the eating, d’ Schreiwen – the writing, d’Liesen – the reading

Nouns ending in –ment: Dokument, Experiment, Abonnement

Most nouns starting with Ge-: Gebai – the building, Geschier – tools / crockery & cuttlery Gesetz – law, Gespréich – discussion

but: there are exceptions, such as de(n) Gedanken (masc) – thought, d’Gefor (fem) – danger, d’ Gebuert (fem) – birth, d’ Gedold (fem) – patience, d’ Gemeng (fem) – town hall, d’ Geschicht (fem) – story / history …

Don’t look for shortcuts. That’s really the way to go with the noun genders in Luxembourgish. Some things in language learning you just have to put your head down and remember it.