German suffix -ant: masculine nouns

by Jakub Marian

Tip: See my list of the Most Common Mistakes in English. It will teach you how to avoid mis­takes with com­mas, pre­pos­i­tions, ir­reg­u­lar verbs, and much more.

There are over 300 nouns in German that end with “ant”, and almost all of them are masculine (i.e. they have the article “der”), such as:

der Diamant (diamond)
der Elefant (elephant)
der Gigant (giant)
der Hydrant (hydrant)
der Praktikant (intern, trainee)

There are only four commonly used nouns ending with -ant that are not masculine (they are all neuter):

das Antitranspirant (antiperspirant)
das Croissant (croissant)
das Deodorant (deodorant)
das Restaurant (restaurant)

Note that “Croissant” and “Restaurant” are pronounced the same way as in French, with a nasal /sɑ̃/ at the end (or, less commonly, /saŋ/, “sahng”). The only other nouns (which are all rather uncommon) breaking the pattern are:

das Aprepitant (aprepitant, a chemical compound)
das Dispersant (dispersant, a dispersing agent added to a suspension)
das Reaktant (reactant, a substance consumed during a chemical reaction)

The word Volant (ruffle, frill; in Austrian German also a dated expression for a steering wheel) may be either masculine or neuter.

For completeness, we should mention that the rule may be applied also to monosyllabic nouns (where -ant is not a suffix), e.g. der Fant (young, inexperienced person), der Grant (feeling of resentment; only used in Bavaria and Austria), der Spant (also das Spant; a frame of a ship or an aircraft), with just a single exception of die Want (shroud, a rope supporting a mast on a ship).

By the way, I have written several educational ebooks. If you get a copy, you can learn new things and support this website at the same time—why don’t you check them out?

0