Gender by Ending & Compound Nouns

Many German nouns show their gender in their ending, so you can often predict the article:

• die: nouns ending in -ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -ion, -tät (die Zeitung, die Freiheit, die Pünktlichkeit, die Freundschaft, die Information, die Universität)
• das: small forms ending in -chen and -lein (das Brötchen, das Büchlein), even for people (das Mädchen)
• der: nouns ending in -ling and -ismus (der Schmetterling, der Tourismus), and seasons, months and days of the week (der Winter, der Mai, der Montag)

Compound nouns always take the gender of their last part. The first part only says what kind of thing it is:

• das Haus + die Tür → die Haustür
• kühl + der Schrank → der Kühlschrank
• der Motor + das Rad → das Motorrad