Nouns that describe an occupation or a type of person are usually masculine. Many are formed by attaching an er ending to a verb or noun. These er nouns have no change in the plural:

die Musik music	der Musiker (male) musician	die Musiker multiple (male) musicians
lehren to teach	der Lehrer (male) teacher	die Lehrer multiple (male) teachers

Even those that don't fit the er pattern tend to be masculine. But their plural forms can vary:

der Arzt (male) doctor	die Ärzte multiple (male) doctors
der Matrose sailor	die Matrosen multiple (male) sailors

The feminine version is formed by adding an in, and it always has the same plural. With the non-"er" forms, they often add an umlaut:

die Musikerin female musician	die Musikerinnen multiple female musicians
die Lehrerin female teacher	die Lehrerinnen multiple female teachers
die Ärztin female doctor	die Ärztinnen multiple female doctors
die Matrosin female sailor	die Matrosinnen multiple female sailors

Like many other languages, German is struggling a little to create modern gender-neutral noun forms; a construction like "Lehrer/in" is a common approach, but it doesn't always work: you can't say "Arzt/in," because you'd be leaving out the umlaut on the feminine form. Sometimes you'll also see the present participle, Lehrende: "[those who are] teaching."

A related problem in German is that there's no single form for a mixed-gender group. For example, speeches in East Germany often began with the awkward Liebe Genossen und Genossinnen: "Dear male comrades and female comrades."

There are many other standard noun formations, but for now we'll just cover two of the most common. The first is the ung ending, which converts a verb to a noun. These nouns are always feminine, they all have the same en plural, and they include some of the most common words in German:

wohnen to live	die Wohnung home, apartment/flat	die Wohnungen homes, apartments
zahlen to pay	die Zahlung payment	die Zahlungen payments
regieren to rule, govern	die Regierung government	die Regierungen governments
impfen to vaccinate	die Impfung vaccination	die Impfungen vaccinations

This looks like the English "ing" ending, but as you can see above, it rarely translates that way. And in the other direction, "-ing" verb forms in English (walking, talking) generally do not translate to "ung" nouns in German. See our sections on present participles, gerunds and the progressive aspect for more on this.

Finally, there are the endings heit and keit, which convert an adjective into a noun and roughly correspond to the English "ness." As with ung, these endings always make the noun feminine and always take an en plural:

krank sick, ill	die Krankheit sickness, illness	die Krankheiten illnesses
möglich possible	die Möglichkeit possibility	die Möglichkeiten possibilities
schwierig difficult	die Schwierigkeit difficulty	die Schwierigkeiten difficulties

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