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How to memorize noun genders | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| eumiro Bilingual Octoglot Groupie Germany Joined 5055 days ago 74 posts - 102 votes  Speaks: Czech*, Slovak*, French, English, German, Polish, Spanish, Russian Studies: Italian, Hungarian | Message 17 of 51 09 July 2010 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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If I don't know the gender of a noun in German, I try to change the sentence so that this noun appears in Dative. Then the article is identical for both male and neuter (dem) and only female is different (der). That's maybe why sometimes I have problems distinguishing male/neuter, but I identify female nouns almost always correctly ;-)
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| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6220 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 18 of 51 09 July 2010 at 11:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm similar, but try to go to plural, especially when writing essays. And plural dative if I've forgotten the plural, because you add an n!
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| indiana83 Groupie United States ipracticecanto.wordp Joined 5271 days ago 92 posts - 121 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese, Italian | Message 19 of 51 10 July 2010 at 2:33am | IP Logged | ||
I do this too. I heard about this approach when I first started learning Cantonese. It's almost necessary when the language uses classifiers or noun classes, and there are way more than just the 2 or 3 categories. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ladanoise Groupie United States Joined 5074 days ago 45 posts - 46 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Danish | Message 20 of 51 10 July 2010 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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I can't do flashcards by color because my French flashcards are blue and my Danish ones are pink. I use paper flashcards and put about 4 words per flashcard -then all the words
are either masculine or feminine (French)or common or neuter (Danish). It also increases my Danish vocabulary because at leasts 75% of the nouns in Danish are common gender, so I have to look for words that are related but neuter gender. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Liface Triglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Lif Joined 5639 days ago 150 posts - 237 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Dutch, French | Message 21 of 51 10 July 2010 at 9:59pm | IP Logged | ||
I do the exact same thing! It's super handy. Also kind of nerdy. I always thought it was weird to be planning out my sentences in advance. But it definitely helps. By the way, it's helpful to learn the frequency of noun genders in your target language as well. In German it's der (39%), die (35%), das (26%). So if you have to guess, you're better off with der or die. Edited by Liface on 10 July 2010 at 10:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6220 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 22 of 51 11 July 2010 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||
Edited by Declan1991 on 11 July 2010 at 12:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aineko Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 5229 days ago 238 posts - 442 votes Speaks: Serbian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 23 of 51 11 July 2010 at 1:19am | IP Logged | ||
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What about languages that have genders but don´t have articles, how people go around with
that? I've never thought about this question until two of my Spanish tutors asked me, surprised to hear that Serbian doesn't have articles, "but how you remember the noun gender!?". Well you just have to remember :). Lot of nouns do follow some patterns, but there are exceptions. (for example, there's no other way than memorizing that smrt (death) and krv (blood) are feminine, but trn (thorn) is masculine). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6220 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French | Message 24 of 51 11 July 2010 at 3:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Admittedly I don't know much about Serbian or those languages similar to it, but doesn't the declension pretty much show the gender, most of the time at least?
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