5/29/2019
Animals 1
Tips and notes
Recognizing noun gender
While noun genders might seem random
for many words, there are quite a few
ways to at least land a likely hit.
For example, many German nouns have
some kind of ending, which will always
or often come with a particular gender.
Fressen vs. essen
Unlike English, German has two similar
but different verbs for "to eat": essen
and fressen. The latter is the standard
way of expressing that an animal is
eating something. Be careful not to use
fressen to refer to humans – this would
be a serious insult. Assuming you care
about politeness, we will not accept your
solutions if you use fressen with human
subjects.
The most common way to express that a
human being is eating something is the
verb essen. It is not wrong to use it for
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PRACTICE
Non-living objects that end in -e:
these will almost always be feminine
(Schokolade, Erdbeere, Orange,
Banane, Suppe, …). One of the very
few exceptions is der Käse. This also
works for many, but not all animals
(die Katze, Ente, Spinne, Biene, Fliege,
…).
Nouns beginning with Ge- are often
neuter. This is the only prefix
determining gender. (das Gemüse, …)
There are many more endings like
these. You will learn more about them
throughout this course.
animals as well, so we will accept both
solutions. But we strongly recommend
you accustom yourself to the distinction
between essen and fressen.
Fortunately, both verbs have the same
conjugation:
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fressen (for
essen
animals)

ich esse ich fresse

du isst du frisst

er/sie/es er/sie/es frisst

isst

wir essen wir fressen

ihr esst ihr fresst

sie essen sie fressen

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