German nouns ending in -ik

-ik is feminine: subjects and ideas like die Musik and die Politik.

Say the article and the noun together. The ending is a hint, not a word.

On the 114 common nouns with this ending in the frequency list behind these rules, 93% take die. We label that “almost always”. The count is from german-nouns (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0). It is not an exam pass rate.

Exceptions in this rule

• der Streik
• der Pazifik
• der Katholik

Learn the exceptions as pairs. The ending is still worth using for every other noun.

Examples the course uses

• die Musik
• die Politik
• die Technik

In this dictionary

• die Musik

Back to the article dictionary · Train der, die and das