Is it der, die oder das USB-Stick?

Finding the right gender of a noun

German articles are used similarly to the English articles,a and the. However, they are declined differently (change) according to the number, gender and case of their nouns.

In the German language, the gender and therefore article is fixed for each noun.

The most difficult part of learning the German language is the articles (der, die, das) or rather the gender of each noun. The gender of each noun in German has no simple rule. In fact, it can even seem illogical. For example das Mädchen, a young girl is neutral while der Junge, a young boy is male.

It is a good idea to learn the correct article for each new word together - even if it means a lot of work. For example learning "der Hund" (the dog) rather than just Hund by itself. Fortunately, there are some rules about gender in German that make things a little easier. It might be even nicer if these rules didn't have exceptions - but you can't have everything! The best way to learn them is with the App - Der-Die-Das Train! (available for iOS and Android)

German nouns belong either to the gender masculine (male, standard gender) with the definite article der, to the feminine (feminine) with the definite article die, or to the neuter (neuter) with the definite article das.

• for masculine: points of the compass, weather (Osten, Monsun, Sturm; however it is: das Gewitter), liquor/spirits (Wodka, Wein, Kognak), minerals, rocks (Marmor, Quarz, Granit, Diamant);

• for feminine: ships and airplanes (die Deutschland, die Boeing; however it is: der Airbus), cigarette brands (Camel, Marlboro), many tree and plant species (Eiche, Pappel, Kiefer; aber: der Flieder), numbers (Eins, Million; however it is: das Dutzend), most inland rivers (Elbe, Oder, Donau; aber: der Rhein);

• for neutrals: cafes, hotels, cinemas (das Mariott, das Cinemaxx), chemical elements (Helium, Arsen; however it is: der Schwefel, masculine elements have the suffix -stoff), letters, notes, languages and colors (das Orange, das A, das Englische), certain brand names for detergents and cleaning products (Ariel, Persil), continents, countries (die artikellosen: (das alte) Europa; however exceptions include: der Libanon, die Schweiz …).

German declension of USB-Stick?

How does the declension of USB-Stick work in the nominative, accusative, dative and genitive cases? Here you can find all forms in the singular as well as in the plural:

[1] mass storage facility, which is equipped with a flash memory chip and can be connected to other devices via the USB interface

[1] Der USB-Stick sollte nicht einfach vom Rechner abgezogen werden, da es sonst zu Datenverlust bis hin zur Unbrauchbarkeit des USB-Sticks kommen kann.

[1] „Zu diesem Zeitpunkt haben die Mitglieder der Bande fast 300 Sprengsätze aus Tschechien gebunkert, dazu vier Stahlrohre, Schwarzpulver, 70 Meter Zündschnur und einen USB-Stick mit der Bauanleitung für Rohrbomben.“

[1] „Der USB-Stick enthielt Kopien der Datenbanken beider Grundbuchämter. Es sei nicht auszuschließen, dass ein Unberechtigter Einblick nehme, hieß es.“