A little station hall with 32 things to find: tap each one, then give it its article.
1A compound takes the gender of its last part
2-chen makes a word das
3Devices in -er are der, but not das Geländer
Why this matters
A picture hunt instead of a deck: one small station hall with 32 things in it, seen while you wait for your train — der Fahrkartenautomat, das Schließfach, die Bahnhofsuhr, and through the arch der Zug on das Gleis. Someone has even left a piano in the hall, and an ice cream has fallen on the floor. The prompt asks, for example, Wo ist der Koffer? and you tap that thing in the picture. A tap on bare wall costs nothing; a tap on the wrong object tells you what you hit and you keep looking, and after three misses the right one is shown. Each find shows its label, coloured by its gender, then leaves a small tick in that colour, so you can see what you have already found. Once you have passed a run, the hunt turns harder: the prompt hides the article (Wo ist ___ Bahnhofsuhr?), and after the find you choose der, die or das yourself. No object is asked twice in the same run.
Rule · 1 of 3
A compound takes the gender of its last part
Station words are often long, but the article always comes from the last part. Fahrkarte + Automat: der Automat, so der Fahrkartenautomat. Bahnhof + Uhr: die Uhr, so die Bahnhofsuhr, even though der Bahnhof starts it.
die Telefonzelletelephone box (die Zelle)
der Briefkasten, Plural: Briefkästenletter box (der Kasten)
Quick check
Klavierhocker steht vor dem Klavier.
Memory trick · 2 of 3
-chen makes a word das
A noun with the little ending -chen is always neuter, whatever it was before. Das Haus becomes das Häuschen, and the glass shelter in the hall is das Wartehäuschen. The plural stays the same: zwei Wartehäuschen.
das Wartehäuschen, Plural: -waiting shelter
das Schließfach, Plural: Schließfächerluggage locker (das Fach)
Quick check
Which article goes with Wartehäuschen?
Watch out · 3 of 3
Devices in -er are der, but not das Geländer
Things that do a job and end in -er are usually masculine: der Lautsprecher, der Feuerlöscher, der Koffer. Watch out for das Geländer, the handrail on the stairs: it ends in -er too, but it is neuter.
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