Büromaschinenhersteller ‘manufacturer of office machines’
Geschwindigkeitsgrenze ‘speed limit’(c) German can be more precise than English in the meanings which are combined. In
English, a ‘film-maker’ may have made many films, or one. In German, the plural of der
Film is die Filme and we have either der Filmmacher (one particular film) or der
Filmemacher (more than one).54.3 Using suffixes
See also 25.1 (p. 44), 25.3 (p. 44), 25.5 (p. 45), 29.2 (p. 50) and 29.4 (p. 51).
Common suffixes are shown below. Note that all nouns formed by adding the same
suffix have the same gender. Where an umlaut can be added as part of this process, this
is added only where there is a vowel which can take an umlaut (a, o, u, au; see 1.5).- chen/-lein (with umlaut on the stressed vowel) form neuter nouns denoting
diminutives:
das Häuschen ‘little house’- heit/-keit/-igkeit form feminine nouns from adjectives and other nouns, usually
denoting an abstract concept:
die Kindheit ‘childhood’, die Sicherheit ‘safety/security’, die Klugheit
‘cleverness’, die Eitelkeit ‘vanity’, die Geschwindigkeit ‘speed’, die
Minderheit ‘minority’, die Möglichkeit ‘possibility’- e (with umlaut on the stressed vowel) forms feminine nouns from adjectives, denoting
an abstract quality:
die Tiefe ‘depth’, die Größe ‘size’, die Schärfe ‘sharpness’- e forms feminine nouns from some verbs, denoting a concrete event:
die Durchsage ‘announcement’, die Anfrage ‘enquiry’- ei forms feminine nouns denoting collections of things:
die Datei ‘data bank’, die Kartei ‘card index’- er forms masculine nouns denoting a person (or thing) who performs the action
described in a verb:
der Verteidiger ‘defender’, der Fahrer ‘driver’, der Computer
‘computer’,- erei forms feminine nouns denoting a repeated and/or annoying action:
die Angeberei ‘idle boasting’, die Schweinerei ‘dirty trick/awful mess’- ik forms feminine nouns, usually denoting academic disciplines:
die Informatik ‘information technology’, die Statistik ‘statistics’, die
Mathematik ‘mathematics’, die Keramik ‘ceramics’, die Karibik ‘the
Caribbean Sea’
But:
der Atlantik, der Pazifik (because these are oceans: der Ozean)54
Forming nouns