Go here for a simple listing of the gender rules in german

in german there are 3 genders: masculine, feminine, neutral, der; die; das. You need to memorize which words are which gender, since it affects certain constructions. The accusative, dative forms, for instance, can be different according to the noun’s gender.

A quick example, with accusative:

Er trinkt ein Bier: Bier is neutral.

Er trinkt einen Kaffee Kaffee is masculine. Notice the -en.

There is no escape: you need to learn — or guess — the noun’s gender.

It gets easier with a combination of time and some rule-of-thumb laws, or heuristics.

A heuristic is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect or rational, but which is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, short-term goal.

Where finding an optimal solution is impossible or impractical, heuristic methods can be used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution. Heuristics can be mental shortcuts that ease the cognitive load of making a decision ¹.

Mental shortcuts to ease the cognitive load… sounds like something useful to learn a language! (all those pesky cases, vocabulary and pronunciation already take a lot of my cognitive load). Let’s see how good those heuristics are and if we can come up with easier ones that apply in most cases.

The data

We have at our disposal a list of the 500.000 most frequent words ² in german and their genders The file is a csv without a header and begins like this:

[ + Expand]

word	gender
ich	n
ist	n
es	n
was	m
ich	n
ist	n
es	n
was	m
wie	n
ja	n
so	m
aber	n
haben	n
da	n
nein	n
noch	m
habe	f
hast	f
aus	n
gut	n
jetzt	n
sein	n
mal	n
als	m
oder	f
nichts	n
wo	n
werden	n
mehr	n
warum	n
bitte	f
etwas	n
muss	n
los	n
…	…

Textbook heuristics: the rules of the game

We want a rule that:

• can be applied mechanically (no countries are masculine and similar rules. We want a simple rule, not more things to memorize!) ³ Examples are things like boat names are feminine.
• Also not interested in learning exceptions. We want the simplest mechanical rule that guesses right the most. We will ignore all the rules that are not mechanical (names of ships are feminine… ok), since we do not want to teach a program what is a ship and what not.

[ + Expand]

Singular form ending in
Masculine	Feminine	Neutral
-ich	-ei	-chen
-ig	-in	-lein
-ling	-heit	-icht
-s	-keit	-tel
-and	-schaft	-tum
-ant	-ung	-eau
-är	-a	-ett
-ast	-ade	-in
-eur/-ör	-age	-ing
-(i)ent	-aise/-äse	-(i)um
-ier	-aille	-ma
-iker	-ance	-ment
-ismus	-äne
-ist	-anz
-or	-elle
	-ence
	-ette
	-euse
	-ie
	-(i)enz
	-(i)ere
	-ik
	-ille
	-ine
	-ion/-ation
	-isse
	-(i)tät
	-itis
	-ive
	-ose
	-sis/-se
	-ur
	-üre

---

Distribution of genders

Because of this we cannot rely on averages to summarize (in fact, averages are often, like piecharts, a bad idea to analyse data). It is a good idea to look at the distribution of the data.

The baseline: textbook heuristics

Let’s apply the heuristic rules of our grammar book to our data and see how accurate they are. We will guess the gender according to the textbook rules:

Some rules are pretty short (ending in a single letter). Are there internal contradictions?

We can see that some words match several of the rules at the same time!: Some examples of multiple matches are:

• -in can be both feminine and neutral Automatically any word ending in -in, according to the textbook heuristics is probably feminine. But it is also probably neutral (see table above), since it has exactly the same rule! We will ignore this -in ending rule

• -itis (feminine ending), -s (masculine ending) Both match

Whenever there are multiple matches we will match the longest one (in number of characters) only. Once we apply this we get rid of cases with multiple matches

We can see now that the distribution is similar to our first chart (figure 1) There are more feminine nouns, followed by masculine and neutral. That huge last bar is a problem, though: a lot of the words did not match any rule!

No match

Our only problem now is we still have a lot of words without any heuristic we can apply. This is not good for our cognitive load, remember? We will deal with this in a second, but first, how accurate are the results that do match?

Accuracy

How accurate is the classification of the words that matched a rule? Let’s find out:

This will be our baseline for, you guessed it, our quest to find a better rule.

---

Finding a better rule

Groups of n characters

Is there a group of n characters in a noun that correspond to a particular gender?

We will test all the permutations from 2 to 4 letters containing, starting or ending in the string.

All 4 character permutations of the 30 letters a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ß ü ö ä means we are dealing with $P(n,r)=\frac{n!}{(n-r)!} = \frac{30!}{(30-4)!}$ = 657,720 permutations.

We will discard groups that match less than 1% of the time, to avoid having a huge list of values. We are looking at words that start, end , or contain each group of characters.

An inefficent implementation, and 21 hours later the program has finished. What are the results?

Removing rules inconsistency

Some rules match all genders. ⁵ We remove these duplicates and get our data to start looking for useful rules.

Here is the full table, ordered by Gender matched, Percent matched, Match type and Num matched:

[ + Expand]

Gender matched	Value matched	Num matched	Percent matched	Match type
n	en	2819	0.35746893228506216	contain
n	er	2254	0.28582297742835405	contain
n	en	1874	0.23763631752472736	end
n	ch	1820	0.2307887395384225	contain
n	te	1228	0.15571899568856198	contain
n	ge	1058	0.13416180573167638	contain
n	ei	1045	0.13251331473497338	contain
n	re	918	0.11640882576718235	contain
n	el	913	0.11577479076845044	contain
n	in	908	0.1151407557697185	contain
n	sc	898	0.11387268577225462	contain
n	sch	890	0.11285822977428354	contain
n	st	885	0.1122241947755516	contain
n	ie	877	0.11120973877758053	contain
n	he	785	0.09954349480091301	contain
n	au	716	0.09079381181841238	contain
n	an	671	0.08508749682982501	contain
n	se	664	0.08419984783160031	contain
n	le	627	0.07950798884098402	contain
n	be	621	0.07874714684250571	contain
n	de	586	0.0743089018513822	contain
n	ra	585	0.07418209485163581	contain
n	er	577	0.07316763885366473	end
n	la	566	0.07177276185645448	contain
n	nd	565	0.07164595485670809	contain
n	es	549	0.06961704286076592	contain
n	me	548	0.06949023586101953	contain
n	ng	533	0.06758813086482374	contain
n	et	512	0.06492518387014963	contain
n	al	508	0.06441795587116407	contain
n	nt	490	0.06213542987572914	contain
n	ri	480	0.060867359878265276	contain
n	ter	477	0.06048693887902613	contain
n	ha	470	0.05959928988080144	contain
n	is	461	0.05845802688308395	contain
n	fe	460	0.05833121988333756	contain
n	che	460	0.05833121988333756	contain
n	it	451	0.05718995688562008	contain
n	um	451	0.05718995688562008	contain
n	un	451	0.05718995688562008	contain
n	us	437	0.05541465888917068	contain
n	at	434	0.05503423788993152	contain
n	or	433	0.054907430890185134	contain
n	ar	432	0.05478062389043875	contain
n	ne	426	0.05401978189196044	contain
n	hen	420	0.05325893989348212	contain
n	ze	393	0.0498351509003297	contain
n	ste	393	0.0498351509003297	contain
n	il	383	0.048567080902865836	contain
n	li	382	0.04844027390311945	contain
n	ro	379	0.0480598529038803	contain
n	tr	379	0.0480598529038803	contain
n	ic	378	0.04793304590413392	contain
n	we	372	0.0471722039056556	contain
n	ns	362	0.04590413390819173	contain
n	as	359	0.045523712908952574	contain
n	ti	355	0.04501648490996703	contain
n	on	351	0.04450925691098149	contain
n	hen	344	0.04362160791275679	end
n	eb	342	0.04336799391326402	contain
n	ke	340	0.04311437991377124	contain
n	ve	339	0.042987572914024864	contain
n	ta	331	0.041973116916053765	contain
n	sp	329	0.04171950291656098	contain
n	chen	322	0.04083185391833629	contain
n	am	318	0.04032462591935075	contain
n	ier	318	0.04032462591935075	contain
n	ht	316	0.04007101191985798	contain
n	sc	315	0.03994420492011159	begin
n	ich	313	0.03969059092061882	contain
n	sch	312	0.03956378392087243	begin
n	cht	310	0.03931016992137966	contain
n	um	308	0.039056555921886886	end
n	ma	307	0.0389297489221405	contain
n	ren	302	0.038295713923408574	contain
n	ab	294	0.03728125792543748	contain
n	mi	292	0.037027643925944716	contain
n	ver	292	0.037027643925944716	contain
n	rn	289	0.03664722292670555	contain
n	eh	283	0.03588638092822724	contain
n	hr	283	0.03588638092822724	contain
n	rt	283	0.03588638092822724	contain
n	ts	283	0.03588638092822724	contain
n	ein	283	0.03588638092822724	contain
n	em	280	0.035505959928988085	contain
n	na	280	0.035505959928988085	contain
n	el	277	0.03512553892974892	end
n	ac	277	0.03512553892974892	contain
n	aus	276	0.03499873193000254	contain
n	ko	275	0.03487192493025615	contain
n	gs	274	0.034745117930509765	contain
n	ge	271	0.03436469693127061	begin
n	ten	269	0.034111082931777836	contain
n	ent	267	0.03385746893228506	contain
n	ck	266	0.03373066193253866	contain
n	chen	259	0.03284301293431397	end
n	ni	259	0.03284301293431397	contain
n	ec	257	0.032589398934821205	contain
n	si	257	0.032589398934821205	contain
n	ch	253	0.03208217093583566	end
n	ol	253	0.03208217093583566	contain
n	rs	250	0.0317017499365965	contain
n	ld	247	0.03132132893735734	contain
n	and	244	0.03094090793811818	contain
n	ka	242	0.03068729393862541	contain
n	bi	240	0.030433679939132638	contain
n	to	239	0.03030687293938625	contain
n	gen	239	0.03030687293938625	contain
n	fa	237	0.030053258939893482	contain
n	pe	235	0.029799644940400712	contain
n	eu	234	0.029672837940654326	contain
n	sen	234	0.029672837940654326	contain
n	men	232	0.029419223941161563	contain
n	ot	228	0.028911995942176007	contain
n	wa	227	0.028785188942429624	contain
n	st	225	0.02853157494293685	begin
n	ngs	224	0.028404767943190464	contain
n	ru	223	0.02827796094344408	contain
n	ren	222	0.028151153943697688	end
n	ag	221	0.028024346943951305	contain
n	au	221	0.028024346943951305	begin
n	hl	218	0.02764392594471215	contain
n	tu	217	0.02751711894496576	contain
n	pi	216	0.027390311945219376	contain
n	ach	216	0.027390311945219376	contain
n	ba	214	0.0271366979457266	contain
n	ut	213	0.02700989094598022	contain
n	ung	212	0.02688308394623384	contain
n	hi	209	0.026502662946994673	contain
n	ern	209	0.026502662946994673	contain
n	nde	209	0.026502662946994673	contain
n	rk	205	0.02599543494800913	contain
n	tz	204	0.025868627948262744	contain
n	di	203	0.025741820948516358	contain
n	pr	200	0.0253613999492772	contain
n	uc	200	0.0253613999492772	contain
n	ben	199	0.02523459294953081	contain
n	lt	197	0.024980978950038042	contain
n	nk	197	0.024980978950038042	contain
n	ve	197	0.024980978950038042	begin
n	uf	195	0.02472736495054527	contain
n	rb	194	0.024600557950798883	contain
n	im	193	0.0244737509510525	contain
n	pa	192	0.02434694395130612	contain
n	ah	189	0.02396652295206696	contain
n	eg	189	0.02396652295206696	contain
n	ver	188	0.023839715952320567	begin
n	lo	185	0.02345929495308141	contain
n	lu	185	0.02345929495308141	contain
n	om	185	0.02345929495308141	contain
n	sa	185	0.02345929495308141	contain
n	br	184	0.023332487953335024	contain
n	ungs	184	0.023332487953335024	contain
n	hau	183	0.02320568095358864	contain
n	zi	182	0.02307887395384225	contain
n	ad	178	0.02257164595485671	contain
n	ter	176	0.022318031955363936	end
n	rei	176	0.022318031955363936	contain
n	fl	175	0.02219122495561755	contain
n	bl	174	0.022064417955871163	contain
n	ld	172	0.0218108039563784	end
n	ers	172	0.0218108039563784	contain
n	tel	172	0.0218108039563784	contain
n	ken	171	0.02168399695663201	contain
n	uch	170	0.02155718995688562	contain
n	icht	170	0.02155718995688562	contain
n	in	168	0.021303575957392847	end
n	ed	167	0.02117676895764646	contain
n	ho	166	0.02104996195790008	contain
n	ges	165	0.02092315495815369	contain
n	ur	162	0.02054273395891453	contain
n	den	162	0.02054273395891453	contain
n	ing	162	0.02054273395891453	contain
n	ab	161	0.020415926959168145	begin
n	ten	160	0.02028911995942176	end
n	id	159	0.020162312959675376	contain
n	ul	159	0.020162312959675376	contain
n	lei	159	0.020162312959675376	contain
n	ht	158	0.02003550595992899	end
n	erk	158	0.02003550595992899	contain
n	cht	157	0.019908698960182603	end
n	wi	157	0.019908698960182603	contain
n	al	156	0.019781891960436216	end
n	gr	153	0.019401470961197056	contain
n	rg	153	0.019401470961197056	contain
n	ug	153	0.019401470961197056	contain
n	ig	151	0.019147856961704287	contain
n	kr	149	0.018894242962211514	contain
n	ster	149	0.018894242962211514	contain
n	sen	148	0.018767435962465127	end
n	be	148	0.018767435962465127	begin
n	ben	146	0.018513821962972358	end
n	ech	146	0.018513821962972358	contain
n	ha	146	0.018513821962972358	begin
n	gen	145	0.018387014963225968	end
n	ei	145	0.018387014963225968	begin
n	os	144	0.018260207963479585	contain
n	gel	144	0.018260207963479585	contain
n	zen	144	0.018260207963479585	contain
n	ue	143	0.0181334009637332	contain
n	sche	143	0.0181334009637332	contain
n	est	142	0.018006593963986812	contain
n	wer	142	0.018006593963986812	contain
n	rn	141	0.017879786964240425	end
n	ka	141	0.017879786964240425	begin
n	fi	140	0.017752979964494042	contain
n	iu	140	0.017752979964494042	contain
n	der	140	0.017752979964494042	contain
n	ens	140	0.017752979964494042	contain
n	ium	139	0.017626172964747656	contain
n	mo	138	0.01749936596500127	contain
n	auf	138	0.01749936596500127	contain
n	chl	138	0.01749936596500127	contain
n	bo	137	0.017372558965254883	contain
n	chi	137	0.017372558965254883	contain
n	nge	137	0.017372558965254883	contain
n	pie	136	0.017245751965508496	contain
n	pf	135	0.01711894496576211	contain
n	hn	134	0.016992137966015727	contain
n	ir	134	0.016992137966015727	contain
n	ser	134	0.016992137966015727	contain
n	us	133	0.016865330966269337	end
n	bu	133	0.016865330966269337	contain
n	kt	133	0.016865330966269337	contain
n	rd	133	0.016865330966269337	contain
n	eis	133	0.016865330966269337	contain
n	eri	133	0.016865330966269337	contain
n	erb	132	0.016738523966522954	contain
n	isc	132	0.016738523966522954	contain
n	len	132	0.016738523966522954	contain
n	nte	132	0.016738523966522954	contain
n	isch	132	0.016738523966522954	contain
n	kl	130	0.01648490996703018	contain
n	rm	129	0.016358102967283794	contain
n	age	129	0.016358102967283794	contain
n	nd	128	0.01623129596753741	end
n	cke	128	0.01623129596753741	contain
n	fen	128	0.01623129596753741	contain
n	haus	127	0.016104488967791018	contain
n	re	127	0.016104488967791018	begin
n	ium	126	0.015977681968044638	end
n	ef	125	0.01585087496829825	contain
n	eit	125	0.01585087496829825	contain
n	da	123	0.015597260968805478	contain
n	su	123	0.015597260968805478	contain
n	geb	123	0.015597260968805478	contain
n	sta	123	0.015597260968805478	contain
n	ew	122	0.01547045396905909	contain
n	hu	122	0.01547045396905909	contain
n	nz	122	0.01547045396905909	contain
n	hei	121	0.015343646969312704	contain
n	iel	120	0.015216839969566319	contain
n	et	119	0.015090032969819934	end
n	so	119	0.015090032969819934	contain
n	fer	119	0.015090032969819934	contain
n	her	119	0.015090032969819934	contain
n	mit	119	0.015090032969819934	contain
n	spi	119	0.015090032969819934	contain
n	schi	119	0.015090032969819934	contain
n	an	119	0.015090032969819934	begin
n	ki	118	0.014963225970073548	contain
n	hw	117	0.014836418970327163	contain
n	eld	117	0.014836418970327163	contain
n	lie	117	0.014836418970327163	contain
n	ko	117	0.014836418970327163	begin
n	ken	116	0.014709611970580775	end
n	oc	116	0.014709611970580775	contain
n	po	116	0.014709611970580775	contain
n	eic	116	0.014709611970580775	contain
n	rec	116	0.014709611970580775	contain
n	eich	116	0.014709611970580775	contain
n	em	115	0.01458280497083439	end
n	aus	115	0.01458280497083439	end
n	no	115	0.01458280497083439	contain
n	ger	115	0.01458280497083439	contain
n	mp	114	0.014455997971088003	contain
n	op	114	0.014455997971088003	contain
n	tra	114	0.014455997971088003	contain
n	schl	114	0.014455997971088003	contain
n	wa	114	0.014455997971088003	begin
n	haus	113	0.014329190971341619	end
n	ek	113	0.014329190971341619	contain
n	sy	113	0.014329190971341619	contain
n	ahr	113	0.014329190971341619	contain
n	chw	113	0.014329190971341619	contain
n	ind	113	0.014329190971341619	contain
n	gl	112	0.014202383971595232	contain
n	fe	112	0.014202383971595232	begin
n	if	110	0.013948769972102459	contain
n	tem	110	0.013948769972102459	contain
n	fo	109	0.013821962972356074	contain
n	cha	109	0.013821962972356074	contain
n	aus	109	0.013821962972356074	begin
n	ga	108	0.013695155972609688	contain
n	rau	107	0.0135683489728633	contain
n	he	107	0.0135683489728633	begin
n	sp	107	0.0135683489728633	begin
n	ein	107	0.0135683489728633	begin
n	af	106	0.013441541973116916	contain
n	end	106	0.013441541973116916	contain
n	pro	106	0.013441541973116916	contain
n	ap	105	0.01331473497337053	contain
n	hre	105	0.01331473497337053	contain
n	icht	104	0.013187927973624143	end
n	ft	104	0.013187927973624143	contain
n	ys	104	0.013187927973624143	contain
n	lan	104	0.013187927973624143	contain
n	ma	104	0.013187927973624143	begin
n	at	103	0.013061120973877759	end
n	ern	103	0.013061120973877759	end
n	men	103	0.013061120973877759	end
n	ik	103	0.013061120973877759	contain
n	rf	103	0.013061120973877759	contain
n	rz	103	0.013061120973877759	contain
n	iche	103	0.013061120973877759	contain
n	ba	103	0.013061120973877759	begin
n	ln	102	0.012934313974131372	contain
n	vo	102	0.012934313974131372	contain
n	eck	102	0.012934313974131372	contain
n	ert	102	0.012934313974131372	contain
n	ild	102	0.012934313974131372	contain
n	schw	102	0.012934313974131372	contain
n	alt	101	0.012807506974384986	contain
n	nter	101	0.012807506974384986	contain
n	sg	100	0.0126806999746386	contain
n	nb	99	0.012553892974892214	contain
n	eln	99	0.012553892974892214	contain
n	rie	99	0.012553892974892214	contain
n	ln	98	0.012427085975145828	end
n	on	98	0.012427085975145828	end
n	eld	98	0.012427085975145828	end
n	eln	98	0.012427085975145828	end
n	rech	98	0.012427085975145828	contain
n	oh	97	0.012300278975399441	contain
n	stem	97	0.012300278975399441	contain
n	ku	96	0.012173471975653057	contain
n	spie	96	0.012173471975653057	contain
n	hm	95	0.01204666497590667	contain
n	erg	95	0.01204666497590667	contain
n	gra	95	0.01204666497590667	contain
n	nis	95	0.01204666497590667	contain
n	yst	95	0.01204666497590667	contain
n	rh	94	0.011919857976160284	contain
n	dr	93	0.0117930509764139	contain
n	io	93	0.0117930509764139	contain
n	vi	93	0.0117930509764139	contain
n	yste	93	0.0117930509764139	contain
n	and	92	0.011666243976667512	end
n	den	92	0.011666243976667512	end
n	ier	92	0.011666243976667512	end
n	tel	92	0.011666243976667512	end
n	do	92	0.011666243976667512	contain
n	fr	92	0.011666243976667512	contain
n	ls	92	0.011666243976667512	contain
n	was	92	0.011666243976667512	contain
n	piel	92	0.011666243976667512	contain
n	fa	92	0.011666243976667512	begin
n	tem	91	0.011539436976921126	end
n	ib	91	0.011539436976921126	contain
n	sk	91	0.011539436976921126	contain
n	eil	91	0.011539436976921126	contain
n	werk	91	0.011539436976921126	contain
n	we	91	0.011539436976921126	begin
n	stem	90	0.011412629977174741	end
n	du	90	0.011412629977174741	contain
n	gi	90	0.011412629977174741	contain
n	mu	90	0.011412629977174741	contain
n	nf	90	0.011412629977174741	contain
n	bil	90	0.011412629977174741	contain
n	ram	90	0.011412629977174741	contain
n	sge	90	0.011412629977174741	contain
n	ot	89	0.011285822977428354	end
n	bs	89	0.011285822977428354	contain
n	th	89	0.011285822977428354	contain
n	str	89	0.011285822977428354	contain
n	tie	89	0.011285822977428354	contain
n	pa	89	0.011285822977428354	begin
n	auf	89	0.011285822977428354	begin
n	ob	88	0.011159015977681968	contain
n	rk	87	0.01103220897793558	end
n	ber	87	0.01103220897793558	contain
n	lte	87	0.01103220897793558	contain
n	scha	87	0.01103220897793558	contain
n	len	86	0.010905401978189195	end
n	uch	86	0.010905401978189195	end
n	nst	86	0.010905401978189195	contain
n	rge	86	0.010905401978189195	contain
n	tei	86	0.010905401978189195	contain
n	na	86	0.010905401978189195	begin
n	il	85	0.01077859497844281	end
n	fen	85	0.01077859497844281	end
n	las	85	0.01077859497844281	contain
n	se	85	0.01077859497844281	begin
n	iel	84	0.010651787978696424	end
n	ia	84	0.010651787978696424	contain
n	rl	84	0.010651787978696424	contain
n	und	84	0.010651787978696424	contain
n	erk	83	0.01052498097895004	end
n	ate	83	0.01052498097895004	contain
n	lag	83	0.01052498097895004	contain
n	mer	83	0.01052498097895004	contain
n	zei	83	0.01052498097895004	contain
n	le	83	0.01052498097895004	begin
n	chu	82	0.010398173979203652	contain
n	eid	82	0.010398173979203652	contain
n	rte	82	0.010398173979203652	contain
n	cken	82	0.010398173979203652	contain
n	tr	82	0.010398173979203652	begin
n	werk	81	0.010271366979457266	end
n	nh	81	0.010271366979457266	contain
n	up	81	0.010271366979457266	contain
n	gew	81	0.010271366979457266	contain
n	per	81	0.010271366979457266	contain
n	is	80	0.01014455997971088	end
n	ng	80	0.01014455997971088	end
n	ak	80	0.01014455997971088	contain
n	erf	80	0.01014455997971088	contain
n	etz	80	0.01014455997971088	contain
n	hal	80	0.01014455997971088	contain
n	wei	80	0.01014455997971088	contain
n	uer	79	0.010017752979964495	contain
n	la	79	0.010017752979964495	begin
n	me	79	0.010017752979964495	begin
m	er	3703	0.3254240267158801	contain
m	ch	2800	0.2460673169874329	contain
m	en	2369	0.208190526408296	contain
m	er	1960	0.1722471218912031	end
m	st	1754	0.1541435978556991	contain
m	sc	1647	0.1447403110993936	contain
m	te	1633	0.14350997451445646	contain
m	sch	1628	0.1430705685912646	contain
m	an	1536	0.13498549960453468	contain
m	ei	1519	0.13349151946568238	contain
m	el	1208	0.10616047104314966	contain
m	au	1188	0.10440284735038227	contain
m	ra	1124	0.09877845153352667	contain
m	re	1093	0.09605413480973723	contain
m	in	1068	0.09385710519377803	contain
m	ge	1017	0.0893751647772212	contain
m	be	997	0.08761754108445381	contain
m	ie	947	0.08322348185253538	contain
m	nd	923	0.08111433342121452	contain
m	us	914	0.0803234027594692	contain
m	la	861	0.07566569997363565	contain
m	un	837	0.07355655154231479	contain
m	le	828	0.07276562088056948	contain
m	he	827	0.0726777396959311	contain
m	al	822	0.07223833377273926	contain
m	en	809	0.07109587837244045	end
m	ns	806	0.07083223481852535	contain
m	ng	803	0.07056859126461025	contain
m	ta	796	0.06995342297214166	contain
m	is	787	0.06916249231039634	contain
m	de	782	0.0687230863872045	contain
m	ri	768	0.06749274980226734	contain
m	at	766	0.0673169874329906	contain
m	or	755	0.06635029440196852	contain
m	tr	749	0.06582300729413833	contain
m	ter	736	0.06468055189383952	contain
m	ha	702	0.06169259161613499	contain
m	it	702	0.06169259161613499	contain
m	ar	701	0.06160471043149661	contain
m	se	700	0.06151682924685824	contain
m	es	647	0.05685912646102469	contain
m	fe	644	0.056595482907109584	contain
m	nt	626	0.05501362158361895	contain
m	ke	553	0.04859829510501802	contain
m	sc	551	0.048422532735741285	begin
m	ne	548	0.04815888918182617	contain
m	sch	544	0.04780736444327269	begin
m	ck	543	0.04771948325863433	contain
m	el	537	0.04719219615080411	end
m	sa	533	0.04684067141225064	contain
m	me	521	0.04578609719659021	contain
m	ru	516	0.04534669127339837	contain
m	on	510	0.04481940416556815	contain
m	ic	509	0.044731522980929785	contain
m	rt	507	0.04455576061165305	contain
m	rs	505	0.04437999824237631	contain
m	ag	504	0.04429211705773794	contain
m	hl	501	0.04402847350382283	contain
m	ma	501	0.04402847350382283	contain
m	ch	500	0.043940592319184464	end
m	tz	496	0.04358906758063099	contain
m	che	495	0.04350118639599262	contain
m	ts	476	0.041831443887863605	contain
m	we	475	0.04174356270322524	contain
m	sp	474	0.04165568151858687	contain
m	to	474	0.04165568151858687	contain
m	as	467	0.041040513226118285	contain
m	ro	462	0.04060110730292645	contain
m	li	460	0.04042534493364972	contain
m	nk	455	0.03998593901045786	contain
m	ka	454	0.03989805782581949	contain
m	ti	452	0.03972229545654275	contain
m	ens	451	0.03963441427190439	contain
m	ve	440	0.03866772124088233	contain
m	uc	435	0.038228315317690484	contain
m	ter	422	0.03708585991739169	end
m	ba	420	0.03691009754811495	contain
m	sta	418	0.03673433517883822	contain
m	rei	416	0.03655857280956147	contain
m	ich	411	0.03611916688636963	contain
m	ste	408	0.035855523332454516	contain
m	na	407	0.03576764214781615	contain
m	and	403	0.03541611740926268	contain
m	ko	401	0.03524035503998594	contain
m	ur	398	0.03497671148607083	contain
m	uf	397	0.034888830301432465	contain
m	wa	393	0.03453730556287899	contain
m	um	387	0.034010018455048766	contain
m	lu	386	0.033922137270410414	contain
m	ht	385	0.033834256085772035	contain
m	ver	385	0.033834256085772035	contain
m	ac	384	0.03374637490113367	contain
m	ze	381	0.03348273134721856	contain
m	am	379	0.033306968977941824	contain
m	et	376	0.03304332542402672	contain
m	st	369	0.03242815713155813	begin
m	ol	368	0.032340275946919766	contain
m	ut	366	0.03216451357764303	contain
m	cht	364	0.03198875120836628	contain
m	gs	363	0.03190087002372792	contain
m	eg	356	0.03128570173125934	contain
m	pf	354	0.0311099393619826	contain
m	il	353	0.03102205817734423	contain
m	kt	344	0.03023112751559891	contain
m	ung	343	0.030143246330960542	contain
m	pe	341	0.029967483961683805	contain
m	ein	335	0.029440196853853587	contain
m	fa	334	0.029352315669215225	contain
m	us	328	0.028825028561385007	end
m	hu	326	0.02864926619210827	contain
m	ab	323	0.028385622638193164	contain
m	gen	322	0.028297741453554792	contain
m	ec	321	0.028209860268916424	contain
m	uch	320	0.02812197908427805	contain
m	her	319	0.028034097899639687	contain
m	hr	318	0.027946216715001318	contain
m	pr	315	0.02768257316108621	contain
m	eb	314	0.027594691976447844	contain
m	eh	314	0.027594691976447844	contain
m	mu	314	0.027594691976447844	contain
m	ten	314	0.027594691976447844	contain
m	ber	303	0.026627998945425783	contain
m	br	297	0.026100711837595568	contain
m	si	297	0.026100711837595568	contain
m	ers	296	0.026012830652957203	contain
m	ngs	296	0.026012830652957203	contain
m	chl	295	0.02592494946831884	contain
m	rb	292	0.025661305914403725	contain
m	rk	287	0.025221899991211882	contain
m	di	283	0.024870375252658405	contain
m	tz	282	0.02478249406802004	end
m	nde	282	0.02478249406802004	contain
m	schl	281	0.024694612883381668	contain
m	hn	280	0.0246067316987433	contain
m	eit	280	0.0246067316987433	contain
m	tu	276	0.024255206960189825	contain
m	ng	275	0.024167325775551453	end
m	nd	273	0.02399156340627472	end
m	ah	273	0.02399156340627472	contain
m	str	273	0.02399156340627472	contain
m	eu	272	0.023903682221636347	contain
m	eis	272	0.023903682221636347	contain
m	tra	272	0.023903682221636347	contain
m	der	269	0.02364003866772124	contain
m	ug	267	0.023464276298444504	contain
m	ck	265	0.023288513929167764	end
m	auf	265	0.023288513929167764	contain
m	mi	263	0.023112751559891027	contain
m	ge	263	0.023112751559891027	begin
m	ler	262	0.023024870375252655	contain
m	ni	258	0.022673345636699184	contain
m	kr	257	0.02258546445206081	contain
m	aus	257	0.02258546445206081	contain
m	pa	255	0.022409702082784075	contain
m	ang	254	0.022321820898145703	contain
m	ho	250	0.021970296159592232	contain
m	ungs	249	0.021882414974953864	contain
m	st	247	0.021706652605677126	end
m	ach	247	0.021706652605677126	contain
m	ad	245	0.021530890236400386	contain
m	ot	245	0.021530890236400386	contain
m	wi	245	0.021530890236400386	contain
m	nst	244	0.021443009051762017	contain
m	hi	241	0.021179365497846908	contain
m	fl	240	0.021091484313208543	contain
m	lt	237	0.02082784075929344	contain
m	sm	237	0.02082784075929344	contain
m	cha	236	0.020739959574655062	contain
m	ler	235	0.020652078390016697	end
m	zu	234	0.020564197205378328	contain
m	rie	234	0.020564197205378328	contain
m	rm	233	0.02047631602073996	contain
m	mp	232	0.02038843483610159	contain
m	ga	230	0.020212672466824854	contain
m	ent	230	0.020212672466824854	contain
m	rau	228	0.02003691009754812	contain
m	be	227	0.019949028912909745	begin
m	chu	226	0.019861147728271376	contain
m	if	225	0.019773266543633008	contain
m	ku	225	0.019773266543633008	contain
m	ha	225	0.019773266543633008	begin
m	nte	223	0.019597504174356267	contain
m	bo	222	0.019509622989717902	contain
m	ef	222	0.019509622989717902	contain
m	fi	219	0.0192459794358028	contain
m	ag	217	0.019070217066526056	end
m	po	217	0.019070217066526056	contain
m	ier	217	0.019070217066526056	contain
m	tan	216	0.018982335881887687	contain
m	schu	214	0.01880657351261095	contain
m	ger	212	0.018630811143334213	contain
m	mus	212	0.018630811143334213	contain
m	ka	211	0.018542929958695845	begin
m	da	209	0.018367167589419104	contain
m	den	208	0.01827928640478073	contain
m	ran	208	0.01827928640478073	contain
m	op	207	0.01819140522014237	contain
m	cher	207	0.01819140522014237	contain
m	nz	206	0.018103524035504	contain
m	om	206	0.018103524035504	contain
m	gr	202	0.017751999296950524	contain
m	ir	201	0.017664118112312156	contain
m	ko	201	0.017664118112312156	begin
m	af	199	0.017488355743035415	contain
m	scha	199	0.017488355743035415	contain
m	sche	199	0.017488355743035415	contain
m	ner	198	0.017400474558397046	contain
m	rn	196	0.01722471218912031	contain
m	au	195	0.01713683100448194	begin
m	dr	194	0.017048949819843572	contain
m	rd	193	0.016961068635205204	contain
m	ech	193	0.016961068635205204	contain
m	oc	192	0.016873187450566842	contain
m	nsc	192	0.016873187450566842	contain
m	pu	191	0.016785306265928463	contain
m	or	190	0.016697425081290098	end
m	ak	190	0.016697425081290098	contain
m	nsch	190	0.016697425081290098	contain
m	os	188	0.016521662712013357	contain
m	atz	188	0.016521662712013357	contain
m	ker	188	0.016521662712013357	contain
m	ft	187	0.01643378152737499	contain
m	age	187	0.01643378152737499	contain
m	sp	187	0.01643378152737499	begin
m	ld	186	0.01634590034273662	contain
m	lo	186	0.01634590034273662	contain
m	pi	186	0.01634590034273662	contain
m	ve	186	0.01634590034273662	begin
m	vo	185	0.016258019158098252	contain
m	fr	184	0.016170137973459883	contain
m	aum	184	0.016170137973459883	contain
m	sch	183	0.016082256788821515	end
m	ls	183	0.016082256788821515	contain
m	ap	182	0.015994375604183143	contain
m	ed	182	0.015994375604183143	contain
m	mus	181	0.015906494419544774	end
m	mo	181	0.015906494419544774	contain
m	kt	180	0.015818613234906406	end
m	pl	180	0.015818613234906406	contain
m	tel	180	0.015818613234906406	contain
m	wa	180	0.015818613234906406	begin
m	zi	179	0.015730732050268037	contain
m	fer	179	0.015730732050268037	contain
m	re	179	0.015730732050268037	begin
m	hs	178	0.01564285086562967	contain
m	so	178	0.01564285086562967	contain
m	ser	178	0.01564285086562967	contain
m	tor	178	0.01564285086562967	contain
m	icht	178	0.01564285086562967	contain
m	nb	177	0.0155549696809913	contain
m	ba	176	0.015467088496352931	begin
m	ver	176	0.015467088496352931	begin
m	ing	175	0.01537920731171456	contain
m	sen	174	0.01529132612707619	contain
m	hm	172	0.015115563757799455	contain
m	im	172	0.015115563757799455	contain
m	und	172	0.015115563757799455	contain
m	ert	171	0.015027682573161087	contain
m	smu	171	0.015027682573161087	contain
m	her	169	0.014851920203884346	end
m	sb	167	0.014676157834607613	contain
m	lei	167	0.014676157834607613	contain
m	rsc	167	0.014676157834607613	contain
m	ruc	167	0.014676157834607613	contain
m	rsch	167	0.014676157834607613	contain
m	and	166	0.01458827664996924	end
m	rg	165	0.014500395465330872	contain
m	hei	165	0.014500395465330872	contain
m	lau	165	0.014500395465330872	contain
m	bu	164	0.014412514280692503	contain
m	ig	164	0.014412514280692503	contain
m	hen	164	0.014412514280692503	contain
m	man	164	0.014412514280692503	contain
m	uch	163	0.014324633096054137	end
m	ul	163	0.014324633096054137	contain
m	enst	163	0.014324633096054137	contain
m	chs	162	0.014236751911415766	contain
m	ien	162	0.014236751911415766	contain
m	ist	162	0.014236751911415766	contain
m	kl	161	0.014148870726777396	contain
m	of	161	0.014148870726777396	contain
m	bau	161	0.014148870726777396	contain
m	ism	161	0.014148870726777396	contain
m	um	160	0.014060989542139028	end
m	est	160	0.014060989542139028	contain
m	gel	160	0.014060989542139028	contain
m	ismu	160	0.014060989542139028	contain
m	ort	159	0.013973108357500659	contain
m	ma	159	0.013973108357500659	begin
m	no	158	0.01388522717286229	contain
m	erk	158	0.01388522717286229	contain
m	tri	158	0.01388522717286229	contain
m	in	157	0.013797345988223922	end
m	ik	157	0.013797345988223922	contain
m	ang	156	0.013709464803585552	end
m	erb	156	0.013709464803585552	contain
m	fen	156	0.013709464803585552	contain
m	ei	156	0.013709464803585552	begin
m	ug	155	0.013621583618947185	end
m	hla	155	0.013621583618947185	contain
m	tei	155	0.013621583618947185	contain
m	we	155	0.013621583618947185	begin
m	sk	154	0.013533702434308814	contain
m	chla	154	0.013533702434308814	contain
m	rt	153	0.013445821249670446	end
m	bl	153	0.013445821249670446	contain
m	ub	153	0.013445821249670446	contain
m	lan	152	0.013357940065032077	contain
m	tre	152	0.013357940065032077	contain
m	end	150	0.01318217769575534	contain
m	hau	150	0.01318217769575534	contain
m	atz	148	0.0130064153264786	end
m	cke	148	0.0130064153264786	contain
m	tr	148	0.0130064153264786	begin
m	aum	147	0.012918534141840231	end
m	bs	147	0.012918534141840231	contain
m	rl	147	0.012918534141840231	contain
m	su	147	0.012918534141840231	contain
m	ue	147	0.012918534141840231	contain
m	alt	147	0.012918534141840231	contain
m	stan	147	0.012918534141840231	contain
m	pf	146	0.012830652957201864	end
m	rat	146	0.012830652957201864	contain
m	ek	145	0.012742771772563494	contain
m	nge	145	0.012742771772563494	contain
m	ger	144	0.012654890587925124	end
m	eic	144	0.012654890587925124	contain
m	hal	144	0.012654890587925124	contain
m	rbe	144	0.012654890587925124	contain
m	eich	144	0.012654890587925124	contain
m	ant	143	0.012567009403286757	contain
m	ind	143	0.012567009403286757	contain
m	lat	143	0.012567009403286757	contain
m	chen	143	0.012567009403286757	contain
m	ds	142	0.012479128218648387	contain
m	oh	142	0.012479128218648387	contain
m	run	141	0.012391247034010018	contain
m	nter	141	0.012391247034010018	contain
m	nf	140	0.01230336584937165	contain
m	od	140	0.01230336584937165	contain
m	ben	140	0.01230336584937165	contain
m	pla	140	0.01230336584937165	contain
m	ker	139	0.01221548466473328	end
m	ten	139	0.01221548466473328	end
m	tor	138	0.012127603480094912	end
m	ric	137	0.012039722295456542	contain
m	cher	136	0.011951841110818174	end
m	an	136	0.011951841110818174	begin
m	fe	136	0.011951841110818174	begin
m	ra	136	0.011951841110818174	begin
m	se	136	0.011951841110818174	begin
m	isc	135	0.011863959926179805	contain
m	ster	135	0.011863959926179805	contain
m	gen	134	0.011776078741541436	end
m	hw	134	0.011776078741541436	contain
m	lus	134	0.011776078741541436	contain
m	at	133	0.011688197556903066	end
m	chn	133	0.011688197556903066	contain
m	unk	133	0.011688197556903066	contain
m	la	133	0.011688197556903066	begin
m	art	132	0.011600316372264698	contain
m	ite	132	0.011600316372264698	contain
m	isch	132	0.011600316372264698	contain
m	nder	132	0.011600316372264698	contain
m	tand	132	0.011600316372264698	contain
m	ner	131	0.011512435187626327	end
m	bi	131	0.011512435187626327	contain
m	rz	131	0.011512435187626327	contain
m	kel	131	0.011512435187626327	contain
m	le	131	0.011512435187626327	begin
m	an	130	0.011424554002987959	end
m	ern	130	0.011424554002987959	contain
m	chi	129	0.011336672818349592	contain
m	ren	129	0.011336672818349592	contain
m	he	129	0.011336672818349592	begin
m	ack	128	0.011248791633711222	contain
m	chw	128	0.011248791633711222	contain
m	era	128	0.011248791633711222	contain
m	pa	127	0.011160910449072851	begin
m	io	126	0.011073029264434485	contain
m	ast	126	0.011073029264434485	contain
m	men	126	0.011073029264434485	contain
m	mer	126	0.011073029264434485	contain
m	wer	126	0.011073029264434485	contain
m	der	125	0.010985148079796116	end
m	lk	125	0.010985148079796116	contain
m	up	125	0.010985148079796116	contain
m	lag	125	0.010985148079796116	contain
m	wei	125	0.010985148079796116	contain
m	ensc	125	0.010985148079796116	contain
m	die	124	0.01089726689515775	contain
m	zug	124	0.01089726689515775	contain
m	ta	124	0.01089726689515775	begin
m	enk	123	0.010809385710519377	contain
m	spr	123	0.010809385710519377	contain
m	rich	123	0.010809385710519377	contain
m	chr	122	0.010721504525881009	contain
m	sel	122	0.010721504525881009	contain
m	sa	122	0.010721504525881009	begin
m	em	121	0.01063362334124264	contain
m	rf	121	0.01063362334124264	contain
m	eck	121	0.01063362334124264	contain
m	nke	121	0.01063362334124264	contain
m	vo	121	0.01063362334124264	begin
m	ich	120	0.010545742156604272	end
m	ki	120	0.010545742156604272	contain
m	han	120	0.010545742156604272	contain
m	id	119	0.0104578609719659	contain
m	ate	119	0.0104578609719659	contain
m	sta	119	0.0104578609719659	begin
m	fal	118	0.010369979787327531	contain
m	tro	118	0.010369979787327531	contain
m	fs	117	0.010282098602689164	contain
m	bes	117	0.010282098602689164	contain
m	sat	117	0.010282098602689164	contain
m	sti	117	0.010282098602689164	contain
m	ab	117	0.010282098602689164	begin
m	kr	117	0.010282098602689164	begin
m	ieg	116	0.010194217418050796	contain
m	itz	116	0.010194217418050796	contain
m	tsc	116	0.010194217418050796	contain
m	utz	116	0.010194217418050796	contain
m	tsch	116	0.010194217418050796	contain
m	ho	116	0.010194217418050796	begin
m	nt	115	0.010106336233412429	end
m	enb	115	0.010106336233412429	contain
m	uck	115	0.010106336233412429	contain
m	schw	115	0.010106336233412429	contain
m	do	114	0.010018455048774057	contain
m	du	114	0.010018455048774057	contain
m	opf	114	0.010018455048774057	contain
m	rst	114	0.010018455048774057	contain
m	ust	114	0.010018455048774057	contain
f	er	4021	0.27987749704183196	contain
f	un	3416	0.2377671051715737	contain
f	ch	3371	0.2346349272638686	contain
f	ng	3203	0.22294146307510265	contain
f	en	3178	0.22120136423748868	contain
f	ei	2988	0.20797661307162246	contain
f	ung	2848	0.1982320595809842	contain
f	te	2605	0.18131829887937634	contain
f	ng	2380	0.16565740934085055	end
f	ung	2374	0.1652397856198232	end
f	in	2148	0.14950929212779285	contain
f	st	2097	0.14595949049906035	contain
f	it	1949	0.1356581053803856	contain
f	sc	1815	0.1263311756107747	contain
f	sch	1807	0.1257743439827382	contain
f	re	1772	0.12333820561007865	contain
f	ge	1756	0.1222245423540057	contain
f	ie	1720	0.11971880002784158	contain
f	le	1620	0.11275840467738568	contain
f	an	1590	0.11067028607224892	contain
f	he	1514	0.10538038560590242	contain
f	be	1490	0.103709890721793	contain
f	el	1471	0.10238741560520638	contain
f	se	1467	0.10210899979118812	contain
f	eit	1443	0.10043850490707873	contain
f	ti	1421	0.09890721792997842	contain
f	ri	1350	0.09396533723115473	contain
f	ra	1331	0.09264286211456813	contain
f	on	1261	0.08777058536924898	contain
f	de	1244	0.08658731815967148	contain
f	au	1147	0.07983573466972924	contain
f	nd	1125	0.07830444769262894	contain
f	at	1101	0.07663395280851952	contain
f	ar	1100	0.07656434885501498	contain
f	la	1073	0.07468504211039187	contain
f	ke	1055	0.0734321709473098	contain
f	ne	1049	0.07301454722628245	contain
f	ha	1036	0.07210969583072319	contain
f	es	1026	0.0714136562956776	contain
f	is	1016	0.070717616760632	contain
f	en	1005	0.06995197327208186	end
f	li	926	0.06445326094522169	contain
f	it	919	0.06396603327068978	end
f	eit	917	0.06382682536368066	end
f	ns	914	0.06361801350316698	contain
f	ru	898	0.06250435024709404	contain
f	ta	869	0.06048583559546183	contain
f	al	863	0.06006821187443447	contain
f	me	861	0.05992900396742535	contain
f	io	838	0.058328113036820485	contain
f	tu	829	0.05770167745527946	contain
f	te	821	0.05714484582724299	end
f	or	811	0.0564488062921974	contain
f	nt	795	0.05533514303612445	contain
f	ve	790	0.05498712326860165	contain
f	in	787	0.054778311408087976	end
f	tr	750	0.052202965128419286	contain
f	ion	750	0.052202965128419286	contain
f	ic	743	0.051715737453887384	contain
f	si	734	0.05108930187234635	contain
f	rt	716	0.04983643070926429	contain
f	ht	713	0.04962761884875061	contain
f	ze	707	0.049209995127723255	contain
f	as	704	0.04900118326720959	contain
f	cht	699	0.048653163499686784	contain
f	lu	692	0.04816593582515487	contain
f	che	692	0.04816593582515487	contain
f	fe	688	0.04788752001113663	contain
f	ich	679	0.0472610844295956	contain
f	ver	671	0.046704252801559126	contain
f	ste	669	0.04656504489455001	contain
f	na	668	0.04649544094104545	contain
f	us	668	0.04649544094104545	contain
f	ts	663	0.046147421173522656	contain
f	rs	654	0.045520985591981616	contain
f	on	632	0.04398969861488133	end
f	ma	628	0.04371128280086309	contain
f	hr	627	0.04364167884735853	contain
f	ter	624	0.04343286698684485	contain
f	tio	617	0.04294563931231294	contain
f	ig	616	0.04287603535880838	contain
f	il	616	0.04287603535880838	contain
f	tion	614	0.04273682745179926	contain
f	ro	612	0.04259761954479015	contain
f	ion	603	0.04197118396324912	end
f	run	592	0.04120554047469896	contain
f	we	586	0.04078791675367161	contain
f	ka	584	0.04064870884666249	contain
f	ah	573	0.03988306535811234	contain
f	pe	572	0.03981346140460778	contain
f	eri	568	0.03953504559058955	contain
f	rin	561	0.03904781791605763	contain
f	sa	558	0.03883900605554395	contain
f	et	555	0.03863019419503028	contain
f	ol	554	0.03856059024152572	contain
f	se	552	0.0384213823345166	end
f	hei	551	0.03835177838101205	contain
f	ie	547	0.038073362566993806	end
f	sc	546	0.03800375861348925	begin
f	ft	545	0.03793415465998469	contain
f	sp	544	0.03786455070648013	contain
f	sch	544	0.03786455070648013	begin
f	af	538	0.037446926985452766	contain
f	ni	526	0.036611679543398064	contain
f	ag	524	0.03647247163638895	contain
f	le	516	0.035915640008352484	end
f	tun	516	0.035915640008352484	contain
f	ur	510	0.035498016287325115	contain
f	rung	510	0.035498016287325115	contain
f	ac	509	0.03542841233382056	contain
f	ten	509	0.03542841233382056	contain
f	rei	508	0.035358808380316	contain
f	tion	507	0.035289204426811445	end
f	gs	505	0.03514999651980232	contain
f	ko	501	0.03487158070578409	contain
f	wa	483	0.033618709542702026	contain
f	rin	476	0.03313148186817011	end
f	gen	466	0.032435442333124516	contain
f	eh	464	0.0322962344261154	contain
f	cha	464	0.0322962344261154	contain
f	eru	464	0.0322962344261154	contain
f	ab	463	0.032226630472610845	contain
f	tung	462	0.032157026519106284	contain
f	kei	461	0.03208742256560173	contain
f	nde	460	0.03201781861209717	contain
f	os	459	0.031948214658592614	contain
f	am	454	0.03160019489106981	contain
f	keit	453	0.03153059093756525	contain
f	ba	452	0.0314609869840607	contain
f	hi	451	0.031391383030556136	contain
f	ati	446	0.03104336326303334	contain
f	ier	446	0.03104336326303334	contain
f	rung	442	0.030764947449015107	end
f	hl	442	0.030764947449015107	contain
f	be	441	0.030695343495510542	begin
f	erin	440	0.03062573954200598	contain
f	mi	439	0.030556135588501426	contain
f	ers	437	0.030416927681492317	contain
f	ein	436	0.03034732372798775	contain
f	rb	435	0.030277719774483187	contain
f	di	434	0.030208115820978636	contain
f	erun	434	0.030208115820978636	contain
f	ge	431	0.029999303960464963	end
f	eg	430	0.029929700006960394	contain
f	ik	426	0.029651284192942162	contain
f	erin	425	0.0295816802394376	end
f	ve	425	0.0295816802394376	begin
f	scha	424	0.029512076285933036	contain
f	ut	421	0.029303264425419362	contain
f	ach	421	0.029303264425419362	contain
f	nk	420	0.029233660471914807	contain
f	ge	420	0.029233660471914807	begin
f	fa	417	0.029024848611401127	contain
f	ens	416	0.02895524465789657	contain
f	nz	414	0.02881603675088745	contain
f	hu	413	0.028746432797382888	contain
f	keit	412	0.02867682884387833	end
f	ver	407	0.028328809076355536	begin
f	pr	406	0.028259205122850982	contain
f	eu	404	0.02811999721584186	contain
f	st	404	0.02811999721584186	begin
f	lun	399	0.027771977448319062	contain
f	ne	397	0.027632769541309943	end
f	heit	393	0.02735435372729171	contain
f	lung	388	0.027006333959768914	contain
f	to	387	0.02693673000626436	contain
f	ngs	387	0.02693673000626436	contain
f	sta	387	0.02693673000626436	contain
f	de	386	0.0268671260527598	end
f	tung	384	0.026727918145750682	end
f	and	381	0.026519106285237005	contain
f	lo	379	0.026379898378227882	contain
f	ec	377	0.02624069047121877	contain
f	tz	377	0.02624069047121877	contain
f	atio	377	0.02624069047121877	contain
f	ck	373	0.02596227465720053	contain
f	du	370	0.025753462796686853	contain
f	lt	370	0.025753462796686853	contain
f	ku	369	0.02568385884318229	contain
f	nu	368	0.02561425488967773	contain
f	rk	368	0.02561425488967773	contain
f	kt	366	0.02547504698266861	contain
f	uf	365	0.025405443029164056	contain
f	hn	361	0.025127027215145814	contain
f	nge	351	0.02443098768010023	contain
f	wi	349	0.024291779773091108	contain
f	pa	347	0.024152571866081992	contain
f	eb	346	0.02408296791257744	contain
f	aft	345	0.02401336395907288	contain
f	gu	344	0.023943760005568315	contain
f	ent	344	0.023943760005568315	contain
f	age	342	0.0238045520985592	contain
f	aus	337	0.0234565323310364	contain
f	lei	336	0.023386928377531844	contain
f	ft	333	0.02317811651701817	end
f	kr	333	0.02317811651701817	contain
f	icht	331	0.023038908610009047	contain
f	ul	325	0.022621284888981696	contain
f	lung	322	0.02241247302846802	end
f	her	322	0.02241247302846802	contain
f	re	319	0.02220366116795434	begin
f	er	317	0.022064453260945215	end
f	ad	317	0.022064453260945215	contain
f	ungs	317	0.022064453260945215	contain
f	rm	316	0.021994849307440664	contain
f	chu	316	0.021994849307440664	contain
f	tel	316	0.021994849307440664	contain
f	ga	311	0.02164682953991787	contain
f	der	309	0.02150762163290875	contain
f	heit	308	0.02143801767940419	end
f	gr	306	0.021298809772395073	contain
f	ot	306	0.021298809772395073	contain
f	uc	306	0.021298809772395073	contain
f	eis	305	0.021229205818890512	contain
f	he	304	0.02115960186538596	end
f	pi	304	0.02115960186538596	contain
f	nte	303	0.0210899979118814	contain
f	zei	303	0.0210899979118814	contain
f	fr	300	0.02088118605136772	contain
f	ist	297	0.02067237419085404	contain
f	kl	293	0.02039395837683581	contain
f	haf	291	0.020254750469826686	contain
f	su	289	0.02011554256281757	contain
f	gun	289	0.02011554256281757	contain
f	ed	288	0.02004593860931301	contain
f	rg	287	0.01997633465580845	contain
f	rie	287	0.01997633465580845	contain
f	gi	286	0.01990673070230389	contain
f	um	286	0.01990673070230389	contain
f	str	286	0.01990673070230389	contain
f	om	285	0.01983712674879933	contain
f	rbe	285	0.01983712674879933	contain
f	ha	285	0.01983712674879933	begin
f	th	284	0.01976752279529477	contain
f	sche	283	0.01969791884179021	contain
f	ten	281	0.019558710934781096	end
f	fl	281	0.019558710934781096	contain
f	au	280	0.01948910698127653	begin
f	bi	279	0.019419503027771973	contain
f	so	278	0.01934989907426742	contain
f	ue	278	0.01934989907426742	contain
f	gk	277	0.01928029512076286	contain
f	sk	273	0.019001879306744626	contain
f	em	272	0.018932275353240064	contain
f	ite	272	0.018932275353240064	contain
f	ho	266	0.01851465163221271	contain
f	im	266	0.01851465163221271	contain
f	ko	266	0.01851465163221271	begin
f	ech	264	0.01837544372520359	contain
f	haft	264	0.01837544372520359	contain
f	rn	263	0.018305839771699032	contain
f	nst	263	0.018305839771699032	contain
f	ren	263	0.018305839771699032	contain
f	chi	262	0.018236235818194474	contain
f	fi	261	0.01816663186468992	contain
f	gke	259	0.0180274239576808	contain
f	igk	259	0.0180274239576808	contain
f	gkei	258	0.017957820004176242	contain
f	igke	258	0.017957820004176242	contain
f	ges	257	0.017888216050671674	contain
f	sen	257	0.017888216050671674	contain
f	vo	256	0.01781861209716712	contain
f	zi	255	0.017749008143662558	contain
f	sti	253	0.017609800236653442	contain
f	tra	253	0.017609800236653442	contain
f	be	252	0.017540196283148884	end
f	ir	252	0.017540196283148884	contain
f	zu	252	0.017540196283148884	contain
f	aft	250	0.01740098837613976	end
f	br	250	0.01740098837613976	contain
f	uch	250	0.01740098837613976	contain
f	und	249	0.017331384422635206	contain
f	ld	246	0.017122572562121532	contain
f	mp	246	0.017122572562121532	contain
f	mu	246	0.017122572562121532	contain
f	chaf	246	0.017122572562121532	contain
f	ind	244	0.01698336465511241	contain
f	rte	244	0.01698336465511241	contain
f	po	242	0.016844156748103294	contain
f	dun	242	0.016844156748103294	contain
f	art	238	0.016565740934085055	contain
f	schu	238	0.016565740934085055	contain
f	ik	237	0.016496136980580497	end
f	ls	237	0.016496136980580497	contain
f	rd	237	0.016496136980580497	contain
f	fo	236	0.016426533027075942	contain
f	if	236	0.016426533027075942	contain
f	un	236	0.016426533027075942	begin
f	ek	235	0.016356929073571374	contain
f	dung	235	0.016356929073571374	contain
f	da	234	0.01628732512006682	contain
f	est	234	0.01628732512006682	contain
f	che	233	0.016217721166562258	end
f	ma	228	0.015869701399039458	begin
f	era	226	0.01573049349203035	contain
f	ieru	226	0.01573049349203035	contain
f	an	226	0.01573049349203035	begin
f	alt	224	0.015591285585021231	contain
f	bu	223	0.01552168163151667	contain
f	up	220	0.01531286977100299	contain
f	arb	218	0.015173661863993874	contain
f	pe	216	0.015034453956984757	end
f	bl	214	0.01489524604997564	contain
f	ahr	214	0.01489524604997564	contain
f	zeit	214	0.01489524604997564	contain
f	mo	213	0.014825642096471081	contain
f	nf	213	0.014825642096471081	contain
f	ine	212	0.014756038142966518	contain
f	schi	212	0.014756038142966518	contain
f	ei	212	0.014756038142966518	begin
f	age	211	0.014686434189461962	end
f	pf	211	0.014686434189461962	contain
f	ran	211	0.014686434189461962	contain
f	end	210	0.014616830235957404	contain
f	nh	209	0.014547226282452844	contain
f	auf	209	0.014547226282452844	contain
f	dung	208	0.014477622328948284	end
f	ht	207	0.014408018375443725	end
f	id	207	0.014408018375443725	contain
f	ef	206	0.014338414421939168	contain
f	stel	206	0.014338414421939168	contain
f	ei	205	0.014268810468434609	end
f	ke	205	0.014268810468434609	end
f	hau	205	0.014268810468434609	contain
f	se	204	0.014199206514930047	begin
f	cht	203	0.014129602561425491	end
f	ber	203	0.014129602561425491	contain
f	tin	203	0.014129602561425491	contain
f	ang	202	0.01405999860792093	contain
f	hun	202	0.01405999860792093	contain
f	lag	202	0.01405999860792093	contain
f	sp	202	0.01405999860792093	begin
f	el	201	0.013990394654416372	end
f	ap	201	0.013990394654416372	contain
f	bs	201	0.013990394654416372	contain
f	lic	201	0.013990394654416372	contain
f	ak	200	0.013920790700911812	contain
f	hw	200	0.013920790700911812	contain
f	tei	200	0.013920790700911812	contain
f	ka	200	0.013920790700911812	begin
f	ug	199	0.013851186747407252	contain
f	rsc	199	0.013851186747407252	contain
f	arbe	199	0.013851186747407252	contain
f	rsch	199	0.013851186747407252	contain
f	no	196	0.013642374886893576	contain
f	bei	196	0.013642374886893576	contain
f	chl	196	0.013642374886893576	contain
f	enz	196	0.013642374886893576	contain
f	rat	196	0.013642374886893576	contain
f	nde	195	0.013572770933389015	end
f	chw	195	0.013572770933389015	contain
f	ert	195	0.013572770933389015	contain
f	ba	195	0.013572770933389015	begin
f	rl	194	0.013503166979884457	contain
f	lich	194	0.013503166979884457	contain
f	kun	193	0.0134335630263799	contain
f	stu	191	0.01329435511937078	contain
f	le	191	0.01329435511937078	begin
f	op	190	0.013224751165866222	contain
f	lan	190	0.013224751165866222	contain
f	hm	189	0.013155147212361662	contain
f	sel	189	0.013155147212361662	contain
f	rec	187	0.013015939305352544	contain
f	ben	186	0.012946335351847985	contain
f	cke	185	0.012876731398343428	contain
f	men	185	0.012876731398343428	contain
f	hung	185	0.012876731398343428	contain
f	den	184	0.012807127444838869	contain
f	erb	183	0.012737523491334307	contain
f	mer	183	0.012737523491334307	contain
f	bes	182	0.01266791953782975	contain
f	hal	182	0.01266791953782975	contain
f	lie	182	0.01266791953782975	contain
f	ner	182	0.01266791953782975	contain
f	gen	181	0.012598315584325193	end
f	og	181	0.012598315584325193	contain
f	gie	181	0.012598315584325193	contain
f	fe	181	0.012598315584325193	begin
f	haft	180	0.01252871163082063	end
f	chr	180	0.01252871163082063	contain
f	rau	180	0.01252871163082063	contain
f	cher	180	0.01252871163082063	contain
f	nsc	179	0.012459107677316072	contain
f	tsc	179	0.012459107677316072	contain
f	wei	179	0.012459107677316072	contain
f	nsch	179	0.012459107677316072	contain
f	tsch	179	0.012459107677316072	contain
f	ab	179	0.012459107677316072	begin
f	rz	178	0.012389503723811512	contain
f	eil	178	0.012389503723811512	contain
f	ern	178	0.012389503723811512	contain
f	ien	178	0.012389503723811512	contain
f	schw	178	0.012389503723811512	contain
f	pr	176	0.012250295816802394	begin
f	wa	176	0.012250295816802394	begin
f	rh	175	0.012180691863297836	contain
f	erk	175	0.012180691863297836	contain
f	kti	175	0.012180691863297836	contain
f	vor	175	0.012180691863297836	contain
f	we	175	0.012180691863297836	begin
f	ob	174	0.012111087909793277	contain
f	esc	174	0.012111087909793277	contain
f	its	174	0.012111087909793277	contain
f	esch	174	0.012111087909793277	contain
f	vo	174	0.012111087909793277	begin
f	dr	172	0.011971880002784156	contain
f	rbei	171	0.0119022760492796	contain
f	ser	170	0.011832672095775041	contain
f	gel	169	0.011763068142270482	contain
f	beit	169	0.011763068142270482	contain
f	er	169	0.011763068142270482	begin
f	ise	168	0.011693464188765922	contain
f	uer	168	0.011693464188765922	contain
f	eits	168	0.011693464188765922	contain
f	chn	167	0.011623860235261362	contain
f	nie	167	0.011623860235261362	contain
f	schl	167	0.011623860235261362	contain
f	he	167	0.011623860235261362	begin
f	nl	166	0.011554256281756804	contain
f	the	166	0.011554256281756804	contain
f	oc	165	0.011484652328252245	contain
f	lage	165	0.011484652328252245	contain
f	hte	164	0.011415048374747685	contain
f	kra	164	0.011415048374747685	contain
f	unge	164	0.011415048374747685	contain
f	fah	163	0.011345444421243129	contain
f	pro	163	0.011345444421243129	contain
f	tin	162	0.011275840467738569	end
f	bo	162	0.011275840467738569	contain
f	chte	162	0.011275840467738569	contain
f	nb	161	0.01120623651423401	contain
f	nhe	161	0.01120623651423401	contain
f	vers	161	0.01120623651423401	contain
f	ub	159	0.011067028607224891	contain
f	erg	159	0.011067028607224891	contain
f	han	158	0.010997424653720332	contain
f	lin	158	0.010997424653720332	contain
f	hen	157	0.010927820700215772	contain
f	nhei	157	0.010927820700215772	contain
f	nter	157	0.010927820700215772	contain
f	ate	156	0.010858216746711212	contain
f	rech	156	0.010858216746711212	contain
f	fer	155	0.010788612793206654	contain
f	sic	155	0.010788612793206654	contain
f	sich	155	0.010788612793206654	contain
f	ank	154	0.010719008839702095	contain
f	anz	154	0.010719008839702095	contain
f	hre	154	0.010719008839702095	contain
f	kon	154	0.010719008839702095	contain
f	len	154	0.010719008839702095	contain
f	tur	154	0.010719008839702095	contain
f	me	154	0.010719008839702095	begin
f	hk	153	0.010649404886197537	contain
f	iche	153	0.010649404886197537	contain
f	in	153	0.010649404886197537	begin
f	na	153	0.010649404886197537	begin
f	erl	152	0.010579800932692977	contain
f	fahr	152	0.010579800932692977	contain
f	pl	151	0.010510196979188416	contain
f	sl	151	0.010510196979188416	contain
f	igu	151	0.010510196979188416	contain
f	per	151	0.010510196979188416	contain
f	raf	151	0.010510196979188416	contain
f	rst	151	0.010510196979188416	contain
f	ur	150	0.01044059302568386	end
f	ade	150	0.01044059302568386	contain
f	res	150	0.01044059302568386	contain
f	hung	149	0.0103709890721793	end
f	od	149	0.0103709890721793	contain
f	sb	148	0.01030138511867474	contain
f	enh	148	0.01030138511867474	contain
f	ew	147	0.010231781165170182	contain
f	rw	147	0.010231781165170182	contain
f	chk	147	0.010231781165170182	contain
f	ehr	147	0.010231781165170182	contain
f	las	147	0.010231781165170182	contain
f	tre	147	0.010231781165170182	contain
f	mi	147	0.010231781165170182	begin
f	ein	147	0.010231781165170182	begin
f	fe	146	0.010162177211665622	end
f	ahl	146	0.010162177211665622	contain
f	tze	146	0.010162177211665622	contain
f	for	145	0.010092573258161064	contain
f	tro	145	0.010092573258161064	contain
f	la	145	0.010092573258161064	begin
f	re	144	0.010022969304656505	end
f	ins	144	0.010022969304656505	contain
f	acht	144	0.010022969304656505	contain

In the previous textbook heuristics table we had a number of rules per gender:

• Masculine: 40 rules
• Feminine: 15 rules
• Neutral: 13 rules
• Total (40 + 15 + 13) = 68 rules

A new set of rules

In our quest to reduce cognitive load we are looking for better rules than the ones you have seen. They are pretty accurate. Can we reduce the number of rules to memorize? Armed with the big table of characters groups we can start looking.

First try: best 20 rules based on ending

Let’s try to find the best rules from all the permutations possible. As a first exploration we will focus on ending in rules and try with a maximum number of 20 rules.

[ + Expand]

Masculine	Feminine	Neutral
	-ung	-hen
	-it	-chen
	-eit	-ren
	-te
	-ion
	-se
	-ie
	-le
	-tion
	-rin
	-rung
	-ge
	-erin
	-keit
	-ne
	-de
	-tung

Results best 20

Textbook % match	Ours % match	Difference match
0.27	0.26	0.02

Textbook f % correct	Textbook f % correct.1	Difference f % correct
0.64	0.64	-0.28

Textbook m % correct	Textbook m % correct.1	Difference m % correct
0.23	0.23	0.23

Textbook n % correct	Textbook n % correct.1	Difference n % correct
0.14	0.14	0.05

Both the graph and the numbers give us the same insights. Our first guess, with 20 rules already performs 2% better than the baseline!

In search of even better rules

Until now we checked only 20 rules. Why 20? since the textbook had (as seen before):

• Masculine: 40 rules
• Feminine: 15 rules
• Neutral: 13 rules
• Total (40 + 15 + 13) = 68 rules

20 was just a guess to explore the data. What is the optimal number of ending in rules that gives as the greatest accuracy? Let’s find out.

Best rules based on begins, contains or ending

Until now we checked only 20 rules per gender, where the rule is “word ends in” -ung, -er, etc. mimicking the rules from the textbook. Probably ending in is easier to remember, but we do not need to limit ourselves to this rule. It might be that contains (anywhere in the word) produces an easier to remember rule with the same or better accuracy.

We will run the best rules from 1 rule to 68 (the textbook number of rules) and see how accurate they are.

Results from 1 to 68 rules

[ + Expand]

Textbook % match	Ours % match	Difference match	Rule #	Match type
0.27	0.45	-0.17	68	end
0.27	0.45	-0.17	67	end
0.27	0.44	-0.17	66	end
0.27	0.44	-0.17	65	end
0.27	0.44	-0.17	64	end
0.27	0.44	-0.16	63	end
0.27	0.43	-0.16	62	end
0.27	0.43	-0.15	60	end
0.27	0.43	-0.15	58	end
0.27	0.43	-0.15	59	end
0.27	0.43	-0.16	61	end
0.27	0.42	-0.14	55	end
0.27	0.42	-0.15	56	end
0.27	0.42	-0.15	57	end
0.27	0.41	-0.14	54	end
0.27	0.41	-0.13	53	end
0.27	0.4	-0.13	51	end
0.27	0.4	-0.12	49	end
0.27	0.4	-0.13	50	end
0.27	0.4	-0.13	52	end
0.27	0.39	-0.12	47	end
0.27	0.39	-0.12	46	end
0.27	0.39	-0.12	48	end
0.27	0.38	-0.11	45	end
0.27	0.38	-0.1	44	end
0.27	0.37	-0.1	43	end
0.27	0.37	-0.1	42	end
0.27	0.36	-0.09	40	end
0.27	0.36	-0.09	41	end
0.27	0.35	-0.08	38	end
0.27	0.35	-0.08	39	end
0.27	0.35	-0.07	37	end
0.27	0.34	-0.07	36	end
0.27	0.34	-0.07	35	end
0.27	0.33	-0.06	34	end
0.27	0.33	-0.06	33	end
0.27	0.33	-0.05	32	end
0.27	0.32	-0.05	31	end
0.27	0.31	-0.04	30	end
0.27	0.31	-0.04	29	end
0.27	0.3	-0.03	28	end
0.27	0.29	-0.02	26	end
0.27	0.29	-0.01	25	end
0.27	0.29	-0.02	27	end
0.27	0.28	-0.01	23	end
0.27	0.28	-0.01	24	end
0.27	0.27	0.0	22	end
0.27	0.26	0.02	65	contain
0.27	0.26	0.01	66	contain
0.27	0.26	0.01	67	contain
0.27	0.26	0.01	68	contain
0.27	0.26	0.01	21	end
0.27	0.26	0.02	20	end
0.27	0.26	0.02	19	end
0.27	0.25	0.02	64	contain
0.27	0.25	0.02	62	contain
0.27	0.25	0.02	63	contain
0.27	0.25	0.03	60	contain
0.27	0.25	0.03	61	contain
0.27	0.24	0.03	59	contain
0.27	0.24	0.03	18	end
0.27	0.24	0.04	58	contain
0.27	0.23	0.05	16	end
0.27	0.23	0.04	57	contain
0.27	0.23	0.04	17	end
0.27	0.23	0.05	55	contain
0.27	0.23	0.04	56	contain
0.27	0.23	0.05	14	end
0.27	0.23	0.05	15	end
0.27	0.22	0.05	54	contain
0.27	0.22	0.05	52	contain
0.27	0.22	0.06	51	contain
0.27	0.22	0.05	53	contain
0.27	0.21	0.07	47	contain
0.27	0.21	0.06	13	end
0.27	0.21	0.06	49	contain
0.27	0.21	0.06	50	contain
0.27	0.21	0.06	12	end
0.27	0.21	0.06	48	contain
0.27	0.21	0.06	11	end
0.27	0.2	0.07	45	contain
0.27	0.2	0.07	10	end
0.27	0.2	0.07	46	contain
0.27	0.2	0.07	44	contain
0.27	0.2	0.07	9	end
0.27	0.19	0.08	42	contain
0.27	0.19	0.08	41	contain
0.27	0.19	0.08	43	contain
0.27	0.18	0.09	40	contain
0.27	0.18	0.09	8	end
0.27	0.18	0.1	39	contain
0.27	0.17	0.11	36	contain
0.27	0.17	0.1	37	contain
0.27	0.17	0.1	38	contain
0.27	0.17	0.11	7	end
0.27	0.17	0.11	35	contain
0.27	0.16	0.11	34	contain
0.27	0.16	0.11	33	contain
0.27	0.16	0.11	32	contain
0.27	0.16	0.11	31	contain
0.27	0.16	0.11	30	contain
0.27	0.16	0.11	29	contain
0.27	0.16	0.11	28	contain
0.27	0.16	0.11	27	contain
0.27	0.15	0.12	6	end
0.27	0.15	0.12	26	contain
0.27	0.15	0.12	25	contain
0.27	0.15	0.12	24	contain
0.27	0.15	0.12	23	contain
0.27	0.15	0.13	22	contain
0.27	0.14	0.13	21	contain
0.27	0.13	0.14	20	contain
0.27	0.13	0.14	5	end
0.27	0.13	0.15	19	contain
0.27	0.12	0.15	4	end
0.27	0.12	0.16	18	contain
0.27	0.11	0.17	15	contain
0.27	0.11	0.17	16	contain
0.27	0.11	0.17	17	contain
0.27	0.1	0.18	2	end
0.27	0.1	0.18	3	end
0.27	0.1	0.18	14	contain
0.27	0.08	0.19	10	contain
0.27	0.08	0.19	11	contain
0.27	0.08	0.19	9	contain
0.27	0.08	0.19	13	contain
0.27	0.08	0.19	12	contain
0.27	0.07	0.2	6	contain
0.27	0.07	0.2	7	contain
0.27	0.07	0.2	8	contain
0.27	0.07	0.2	1	end
0.27	0.05	0.22	5	contain
0.27	0.04	0.23	4	contain
0.27	0.02	0.25	1	contain
0.27	0.02	0.25	3	contain
0.27	0.02	0.25	2	contain

Below we can see this data in a more intuitive way:

We can see clearly:

• Textbook rules match 27% of the time.
• Ending rules are more accurate that contain rules.
• With just 22 rules we can achieve the same accuracy as with textbook’s 68 rules.

Or, alternatively:

• with 68 rules (same as textbook) we can increase the accuracy from 27%to 45%.

The new rules

In the previous section we calculated the different tradeoffs between accuracy and number of rules to remember. How many rules are you willing to memorize?

If you only remember one rule

You cannot be bothered, tempus fugit. If you can only learn one rule, learn this one.

Masculine	Feminine	Neutral
	-ung

To be 20% accurate: 10 rules

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. If you are happy with a set of rules correct 20% of the time use these 10 rules:

[ + Expand]

Masculine	Feminine	Neutral
	-ung	-hen
	-it
	-eit
	-te
	-ion
	-se
	-ie
	-le
	-tion

Same accuracy, less to memorize (recommended)

To guess the same amount of words as with the textbook rules: 27%. You will have to memorize a bit less⁶: instead of the 68 rules before, only the 22 below:

[ + Expand]

Masculine	Feminine	Neutral
-tz	-ung	-hen
-ck	-it	-chen
	-eit	-ren
	-te
	-ion
	-se
	-ie
	-le
	-tion
	-rin
	-rung
	-ge
	-erin
	-keit
	-ne
	-de
	-tung

Maximum accuracy: 68 rules

Only the best is enough. Perfection is not the enemy of the good for you, but the only good. Then, study these 68 rules — same number as before, from our textbook — for a correct guess 45% of the time, versus a now pale 27%.

[ + Expand]

Masculine	Feminine	Neutral
-tz	-ung	-hen
-ck	-it	-chen
-st	-eit	-ren
-ler	-te	-ld
-ag	-ion	-al
-or	-se	-sen
-sch	-ie	-ben
-mus	-le	-rn
-kt	-tion	-ium
-her	-rin	-et
-ang	-rung	-ken
-ug	-ge	-em
-rt	-erin	-aus
-atz	-keit	-haus
-aum	-ne	-icht
-pf	-de	-ern
-ger	-tung	-men
	-ft	-eln
	-lung	-eld
	-heit
	-he
	-be
	-aft
	-ik
	-che
	-pe
	-age
	-dung
	-ke
	-ei
	-nde
	-haft

Coda

Thanks for reading until the very end! If you are learning german, I hope the new 22 rules make it slightly easier.

If you know of another set of rules to guess the gender of a noun in german I would be happy to hear from them. Viel Spaß! :)

Thanks for reading

​

​

Subscribe

Built with Kit

---

Footnotes