Der, Die, Das and the Wehrmacht Question

[Brig]

Which would be the proper word to put in front of Wehrmacht? Der or Das?

[Baltasar]

Die Wehrmacht

[Brig]

the feminine beginning? why?

[Baltasar]

I'm not that good in german grammer But as always it depends on the context.

Der Wehrmacht ~ would mean that something is belonging/attached to the Wehrmacht (das haus gehört der wehrmacht - the house belongs to the wehrmacht)

Das Wehrmacht ~ No idea where that would fit in without any changes

Die Wehrmacht - may be because it's also "die Armee" (the Army) "die Luftwaffe" "die Marine"

[Sepp]

[quote="Brig"]the feminine beginning? why?[/quote]

Because the Power is feminine in Germany; Wehrmacht simply means 'Power of Self-Defense'

Sepp

[Tom Houlihan]

Because the Power is feminine in Germany;

Isn't it that way everywhere???

[Paulus II]

Ah, the horror of German grammar

Here is a link to an online German language course that explains it all.
The article starts with everything you ever wanted to know about german nouns, at a third of the page the cases of the nouns are exlained and about halfway down the page nouns and articles are explained.

http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Ha ... html#cases

Good luck! (you'll need it!)

Cheers,

Paul

[Rudi S.]

Hello y'all,
I am not a linguist; however, there is a simple rule that the gender (der, die, das) is always the one of the last noun of a compound noun.
i.e.: Wehrmacht - Macht is fem. therefore die
Krankenhaus - das (Haus)
Kirchturm - der (Turm)
Hitlerjugend - die (Jugend).
If a simple or compound word is plural, then it is always "die"; as in:
Die Krankenhäuser, die Kirchtürme, die Bäume, etc.
Hope this'll help.
Tschüss,
Rudi S.