In this lesson you can find the German names of countries, nationalities and continents. How they are formed and what gender they are. You can also find phrases related to these terms.
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Countries/ Länder
Woher kommen Sie? / Where are you from?
Nationality/ Nationalitäten
Continents/ Kontinente
Learning Tips
Countries/ Länder
Countries generally do not have a gender. I always tell my students that approximately 99% of countries do not have a gender, which makes learning easier for us. I will list some of the countries:
For example:
Deutschland, Österreich, Russland, Frankreich, Italien, Spanien, Serbien, Kroatien, Slowenien, Mazedonien, Bosnien und Herzegowina, Montenegro, Griechenland , Ungarn, Bulgarien, Japan…
Germany, Austria, Russia, France, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Japan…
All these countries are actually neuter, but that is only important when we use an adjective before the country. For example: “das alte Österreich, das hügelige Slowenien.”
There is a small group of countries that require the use of articles. This applies to both masculine and feminine countries, as well as plural countries.
For example:
die Schweiz, die Türkei, die Ukraine, der Sudan, der Irak, der Iran
Plural: die USA, die Niederlande
Go to the lesson: Geography Words in German
Woher kommen Sie?/ Where are you from?
Ich komme aus Frankreich.- I come from France.
Kommen Sie aus Schweden? – Nein, ich komme aus Norwegen.
– Are you from Sweden? -No, I’m from Norway.
Nationality/ Nationalitäten
Welche Nationalität haben Sie? What is your nationality?
As demonstrated by the example, nationality is based on the name of the country, but there are no strict rules. It needs to be memorized.
Here is a list of countries, so you can refer to it when needed: List of countries and nationalities in German and English.
Here are a couple of tips for masculine and feminine gender:
When nationalities end in the masculine gender with -e, we form the feminine gender by removing the -ei and adding -in.
For example:
Pole + -in = Polin
Serbe + -in = Serbin
Kroate + -in = Kroatin
Pole + -in = Polin
Grieche + -in = Griechin
When nationalities end in the masculine gender with -er, we build the feminine gender by simply adding -in.
For example:
Italiener + -in = Italienerin
Spanier + -in = Spanierin
Amerikaner + -in = Amerikanerin
Kanadier + -in = Kanadierin
Continents/ Kontinente
Learning Tips
Remember to speak words and phrases aloud, vary your intonation to make them more engaging, and imagine a scenario where you would use those words and sentences.
If you struggle to remember certain words, write them down multiple times.
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