Compound Nouns in German
German allows for two or more words to be put together
to form a new word.
These are called "compound nouns."
Beispiel:
(die) Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänsgesellschaft
Often, you are able to figure out the meaning of a word by breaking it down into its constitutive parts.
(die) Donau = Danube (the river)
(die) Dampfschifffahrt = steam navigation
(der) Kapitän = captain
(die) Gesellschaft = society
(die) Donauschifffahrtskapitänsgesellschaft = the society
of captains of
steamship companies on the Danube
Try dividing up the compound nouns from the Porträt
on S. 156:
Menschenrechte =
Menschen +
Rechte
= human rights
Konzentrationslager =
+
=
Weltkrieg
=
+
=
Messestadt
=
+
=
Industriemesse
=
+
=
Weltausstellung =
+
=
The only hard and fast rule you must remember with compound
nouns is that it is the last word in the compound noun that
governs the gender and the plural of the entire word.
Guess at the genders and meanings of the following nouns!
_____ Badehose
Briefpapier
Skibrille
Blumenvase
Wörterbuch
Kaffeemaschine