- in forms feminine nouns identifying a person as female:
die Verteidigerin ‘defender/defence counsel’, die Professorin
‘professor’, die Amerikanerin ‘American woman’- ling forms masculine nouns denoting a person:
der Säugling ‘(suckling) infant’, der Feigling ‘coward’- nis forms mostly neuter nouns:
das Hindernis ‘obstacle’ but die Finsternis ‘darkness’- schaft forms feminine abstract nouns:
die Brüderschaft ‘brotherhood’, die Mutterschaft ‘motherhood’- tum forms mainly neuter nouns denoting an abstract category or a collective group:
das Wachstum ‘growth’, das Bürgertum ‘middle classes’, das Altertum
‘antiquity’ but der Reichtum ‘wealth’- ung forms feminine nouns from verbs, and denotes either a process or the result of
a process:
die Behandlung ‘treatment’, die Betreuung ‘supervision’, die
Bestrafung ‘punishment’, die Bohrung ‘drilling/hole’, die Verfilmung
‘filming/filmed version of a book’ but die Wohnung ‘flat/apartment’,
die Sitzung ‘session (of a meeting)’ - wesen forms neuter nouns denoting a system or organism:
das Bankwesen ‘banking (system)’, das Verkehrswesen ‘transport
(system)’, das Lebewesen ‘living organism’Adjectival nouns with the gender das denote a general or abstract quality:das Mögliche ‘what is possible’, das Gemeinte ‘what was intended’, das
Vergangene ‘what is past’, das Aktuelle ‘what is topical’See also 28.5 (p. 50); see 25–27 (pp. 43–7) for rules on the gender of compound nouns.
54.4 Forming nouns from the principal parts of verbs
There are four patterns for forming nouns from verbs:(a) From the infinitive, with the gender das, usually denoting the act of performing the
activity described by the verb:das Warten ‘waiting’
das Reden ‘talking’
das Trinken ‘drinking’Any infinitive can be turned into a noun in this way. Occasionally, the noun formed
in this way can have an additional meaning. For example, das Schreiben can mean
both ‘(act of) writing’ and ‘written document’. See also 28.6 (p. 50).
(b) From the present participle (see 33.1), usually denoting the person or thing
performing the action:54
WORD STRUCTURE/FORMATION