glad they keep it easy here in the Netherlands
here we don't have male or female words.....just to think Germany also have male and female words (der Ferien (the vacation) die Schule (the school)) How can you actually say that a school is a guy and a vacation a woman? (vonhorz??
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well uhhh first of all its always "die ferien" since its always plural.
Actually there is no 100% correct rule to decline the right article since there are to man inregularitys(i hope thats a word) within the german languages so mostly you should learn the words with their article.BUT: even if there are no perfect rule its possible to make a list with wordgroups which are usually male female or neutral. These rules have prioritys which can tell you how relyable they are.
for example:
99%(works nearly always):
male:Days,months,seasons,weather,alkoholic drinks,cars(by brand and by model),male persons
exeption: the word"the season"itself so it works only for winter summer aso.;weather:"DAS gewitter";alcohol:"DAS bier"
female:ships/aircrafts/motorbikes(even if they have a male name);female persons;plural(funny thing:"the plural" is male)
neutral:Languages;countrys/states(political);Towns
80%
If the rules above doesnt work out you can go by the ending of the word but thats a bit wacky since there are many excaptions:
(works with words with more then one syllable)
Male endings: -er,-ling,-us,-or
female: -e,-in,-heit,-keit,-schaft,-ung,-anz,-enz,-ik,-ion,-tät,-ur,-is,-ei,-ade
Neutral:-chen,-lein,-at,-ing,-ma,-um,-ment,-eau,-o and words beginning with Ge-.
65%
male word endings with one syllable:
-b,-d,-f,-g,-ck,-p,-sch,-ch,-s,-ß,-lm
there is another rule which fills most of the gaps but its much to type so just say if THAT was to much
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