HINTS: GENDER OF GERMAN NOUNS (thought this might help some people on here who are struggling with learning DER, DIE, DAS - these are some pretty decent hints that will make it easier to remember different subcategories of nouns. I really hope I could help somebody with this. Viel Vergnügen!)

I have written a blog post about this, albeit in Swedish. I'll translate it and post it here, since OP's post misses quite a lot of important ones in my opinion. I'll sort them after importance, so the ones higher up in each category (masculinum/femininum/neutrum) will be the ones which, in my opinion, will help you the most. Hopefully someone could use this.


Masculine (der)

Male people and animals: der Arzt, der Löwe.

Endings: -ant, -ast, -ich, -ig, -ismus, -ling, -or, -us.

-er added to the verb stem: lehren → der Lehrer, reiten → der Reiter, sprechen → der Sprecher.

Nouns formed by the stem of strong verbs: betreiben [betrieb, betrieben] → der Betrieb, gehen [ging, gegangen] → der Gang, beißen [biss, gebissen] → der Biss.

Cardional directions, winds, types of weather and forms of precipitation: der Norden, der Osten, der Wind, der Taifun, der Frost, der Hagel, der Regen. (Exceptions: das Wetter, die Brise, das Eis.)

Seasons, months, and days: der Frühling, der Sommer, der Herbst, der Winter, der Januar, der Montag.

Alcoholic drinks and plantbased drinks: der Wodka, der Cocktail, der Kakao, der Tee, der Kaffee. (Exception: das Bier.)

Mountain ranges and mountaineous areas: der Ätna, der Brocken, der Harz. (Exceptions: Compound words as well as die Eifel, die Haardt, die Rhön, die Sierra Nevada.)

Makes of cars: der Audi, der BMW, der Mercedes, der Trabant.

Rivers outside of German Sprachraum: der Ganges, der Jordan, der Nil. (Exceptions: Rivers with the endings -e or -a.)

Rocks and minerals: der Diamant, der Granit, der Quarz. (Exceptions: das Erz, die Kohle, die Kreide, das Mineral.)

Monetary units: der Cent, der Dollar, der Euro. (Exceptions: die Mark, das Pfund.)


Feminine (die)

Endings: -a, -anz, -ei, -enz, -heit, -ie, -ik, -in, -keit, -schaft, -sion, -sis, -tion, tät, -ung, -ur.

Female people and animals: die Ärztin, die Löwin.

-t or similar variants added to the verb stem: die Fahrt, die Jagd, die Macht. (Exceptions: der Dienst, der Verdienst.)

Numerals: die Eins, die Zwei, die Tausend, die Million. (In expressions of quantity: das Tausend, das Million.) Note: Ordinal numbers are conjugated based on gender; der/die/das zweite, ein(e) zweiter, zweite, zweites.

Rivers inside of German Sprachraum: die Donau, die Elbe, die Mosel. (Exceptions: der Inn, der Lech, der Main, der Neckar, der Rhein.)

Airplanes, motorcycles, and ships: die Boeing, die Cessna, die BMW, die „Bismarck“.


Neutral (das)

Endings: -chen (diminutive), -eau -icht, -il, -it, -lein (diminutive), -ma, -ment, -tel, -tum, -um.

Young people and animals: das Baby, das Kalb, das Kind, das Lamm.

Countries, continents, places, cities, islands: (das) Deutschland, (das) Bayern, (das) Europa. (Definite article is added when an attribute is being used: das alte Bayern, das schöne Deutschland.) (Many exceptions, either because of plural form, historical reasons, or other grammatical reasons: die Niederlande, die Vereinigten Staaten, der Irak, der Libanon, die Türkei, das Elsass, das Baltikum. For all of these, the definite article is almost always supposed to be there, though there are exceptions and the usage has changed a lot as well.

"I'm flying to Turkey." -> "Ich fliege in die Türkei."

"I'm in Alsace." -> "Ich bin im Elsass."

Parts of speech (nominalized infinitives, colours, languages, and English -ing-forms): das Spielen, das Rot, das schöne Deutsch, das Doping.

Letters in general and notes in music: das A, das B, das C.

Hotels, cafés, restaurants, and cinemas: das Hilton, das „Kranzler“.

Metals and chemical elements: das Blei, das Eisen, das Gold. (Exceptions: die Bronze, der Phosphor, all chemical elements with the ending -stoff.)

Scientific units: das Ampere, das Atom, das Elektron, das Meter, das Liter. ('Meter' and 'Liter' are often masculine in colloquial speech.)

Tip: Compound words use the gender of the last word. If you know the gender of that word you therefore know the gender of its compounds. Exceptions: Die Antwort [das Wort], die Mitgift [das Gift], der Abscheu [die Scheu].


Sources:

  1. Durrell, Martin. Hammer’s German Grammar and Usage, 4th edition (2002).
  2. Stuff from my uni (among other things 'Tysk syntax för universitetsnivå' by Sven-Gunnar Andersson, Margareta Brandt, Ingemar Persson and Inger Rosengren)
  3. Own experience

The post in Swedish: https://happytalklucky.wordpress.com/category/lessons/german/

/r/German Thread Link - imgur.com