Free Der Die Das Checker
This der die das checker finds the article of a German noun, with its plural and its meaning in English. Type one noun or paste a list of up to 100, and each word shows der, die or das, the plural (die Hunde) and, for der and das nouns, the genitive (des Hundes). It knows 61,806 nouns, and when a word isn't one of them, it makes a guess and marks it as one. One click copies the whole list with its articles. It's free and needs no signup.
How the der die das checker works
Type a German noun into the box, or paste a list of up to 100 words. The checker splits a list at spaces, commas and new lines, so you can paste a column of words or a line with commas between them. If a word has an article in front, the checker ignores the article and looks up the noun. Type die Hund and you get der Hund.
Each noun comes back with its article, its plural, its genitive if it's a der or das noun, and its meaning in English. For Hund, that's der Hund, die Hunde and des Hundes. When the list is done, one click copies all of it with the articles in place.
Nouns with two genders or two meanings
Some German nouns change their meaning with their gender, and the checker shows each one. Der See is a lake and die See is the sea. Band has three: der Band is a volume, das Band is a ribbon and die Band is a band. A noun can also keep one gender and still split in two, with a plural for each meaning. Die Bank is a bench, plural Bänke, and die Bank is a bank, plural Banken.
Other nouns take two standard articles, such as der or das Laptop and der or das Teil, and the checker gives both. Of the 61,806 nouns in the dictionary, 603 have two standard genders.
Umlauts, plurals and adjectival nouns
You don't need a German keyboard. Type Maedchen and the checker finds Mädchen, and Strasse finds Straße.
Plurals work too. Type Häuser, and the checker tells you it's the plural of das Haus and that every plural takes die. That helps when you paste nouns straight from a text, because a plural on its own never shows the gender.
Nouns made from adjectives keep an adjective's endings, and the checker shows the forms: der Erwachsene, but ein Erwachsener, and die Erwachsene for a woman.
Words that aren't in the dictionary
A word the dictionary doesn't have can still get an answer. The checker works out the gender and marks the answer as a guess, so you know to check it. If the word is a compound, it takes the gender of its last part, the way German compounds do: Kinderzimmerlampe gets die, from die Lampe. If not, a strong ending rule can decide, and the checker tells you how often that rule holds. An unknown word ending in -ung gets die, because 4,030 of the 4,071 nouns ending in -ung in the dictionary are feminine. The German noun gender rules guide lists the ending rules with their counts and the exceptions worth learning.
Where the genders come from
The dictionary holds 61,806 German nouns from English Wiktionary, through kaikki.org. Of the nouns with one standard gender, 24,037 take die, 21,126 take der and 15,750 take das. So die is the most common of the three, though at about 4 nouns in 10 it's still a poor guess on its own.
Where a noun's gender changes by region, the checker notes it. It's die E-Mail, but das E-Mail in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and der Joghurt, but das Joghurt in Austria, Switzerland and southern Germany. If your readers are in Vienna or Zurich, check the note.
A der die das finder for vocabulary lists
The checker is made for lists. Paste the nouns from a textbook chapter, or from a text you're reading, and one click copies them back with their articles, ready for flashcards or a vocabulary sheet. Learn the plural with each one too, since a plural alone won't tell you the gender later.
To practice the genders, the der die das quiz tests you on 2,440 everyday nouns and shows the rule behind each answer where there is one. The article also changes with the case, so der Mann can be den Mann, dem Mann or des Mannes, and the German case worksheets practice exactly that. For the verbs in the same lesson, the German verb conjugation worksheets print fill-in boxes with an answer key. If you teach more than one language, the French gender checker and the Spanish gender checker work the same way for le or la and el or la, and the Italian article checker gives il, lo, la or l'.
Frequently asked questions
Is this German article checker free?
Yes. There's no account and no email address, and it runs in the browser.
How many words can I check at once?
You can check up to 100. Put spaces, commas or new lines between them. If a word has an article in front, such as die Hund, the article is ignored and the checker shows the right one: der Hund.
Do I need to type umlauts and ß?
No. Maedchen finds Mädchen, and Strasse finds Straße.
What if I type a plural?
The checker finds the singular and its gender. Type Häuser and it tells you it's the plural of das Haus. Every German plural takes die, so the plural itself never shows the gender.
Why does a word show two articles?
There are three reasons. Some nouns change their meaning with their gender: der See is a lake and die See is the sea. Some take two standard articles, such as der or das Laptop. And some depend on the region, such as das E-Mail in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Is it die E-Mail or das E-Mail?
Both are in use. The checker gives die E-Mail and notes das E-Mail for southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Joghurt is similar: der Joghurt, but das Joghurt in Austria, Switzerland and southern Germany.
What if a word isn't in the dictionary?
The checker works out the gender and marks it as a guess. A compound takes the gender of its last part, so Kinderzimmerlampe gets die, from die Lampe. Otherwise a strong ending rule decides, and the checker says how often it holds: an unknown word in -ung gets die, because 4,030 of the 4,071 nouns ending in -ung in the dictionary are feminine.
Is my text sent anywhere?
The page sends each word on its own, never the text it came from, and nothing is stored.
Licenses and credits
German nouns, genders and plurals come from English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0).