An empty newsroom full of precise office nouns: tap each object in the picture, then give it its article.
1A compound takes the gender of its last part
2Machines in -er are masculine — but not the -fon family
3Latin endings -ium and -iv point to das
Why this matters
A picture hunt instead of a deck: one newspaper office after the editors have gone home, with 32 things to find in it, each one a precise noun from the world of the press and office work — der Aktenvernichter, die Briefablage, das Stativ, die Leinwand for the morning briefing. The prompt asks Wo ist …? and you tap the object in the picture. 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. 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. Once you have passed a run, the hunt turns harder: the prompt hides the article (Wo ist ___ Briefablage?), 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
Most office words are compounds, and only the last part decides the article. Akten + Schrank: der Schrank, so der Aktenschrank. Brief + Ablage: die Ablage, so die Briefablage. Cover the front and read the end.
der Aktenschrank, Plural: Aktenschränkefiling cabinet (der Schrank)
die Schreibtischlampe, Plural: -ndesk lamp (die Lampe)
Quick check
Kleiderständer steht neben dem Stativ.
Watch out · 2 of 3
Machines in -er are masculine — but not the -fon family
A device named after what it does with -er is masculine: der Drucker, der Beamer, der Wasserspender, der Aktenvernichter. Words built on Greek -fon (sound) are neuter instead: das Telefon, das Mikrofon, das Megafon.
der Aktenvernichterpaper shredder
das Megafon, Plural: -emegaphone
Quick check
Which article goes with Mikrofon?
Memory trick · 3 of 3
Latin endings -ium and -iv point to das
Nouns borrowed from Latin with -ium or -iv are nearly always neuter, and -ium words swap it for -ien in the plural: das Aquarium, die Aquarien. Picture the goldfish and the tripod standing together in a green das corner of the room.
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