What gender is a dog in German? - briefly
In German, the word for dog, "Hund," is masculine. Therefore, when referring to a dog, use masculine articles and adjectives.
What gender is a dog in German? - in detail
In German, nouns are assigned a grammatical gender: masculine (der), feminine (die), or neuter (das). The gender of a word does not necessarily correlate with its natural gender. For example, "der Hund" is masculine in German, despite the fact that dogs can be male or female. This assignment is arbitrary and based on historical and linguistic conventions rather than biological characteristics. It's important to note that the grammatical gender of nouns affects the form of articles, adjectives, and pronouns used with them. For instance, "der Hund" would take "der" as the definite article and "ein" as the indefinite article, regardless of whether it refers to a male or female dog. This system can be complex for non-native speakers but is fundamental to understanding and speaking German correctly.