Feminine countries
So far all the countries which we have encountered have been neuter, and are never used with the definite article. A small number of names for countries however are feminine and are always preceded by the definite article "die".

Vocabulary 5: Feminine Countries Das Land Country    Das Land Country die Schweiz  Switzerland    die Slowakei  Slovakia die Türkei Turkey    die Ukraine  Ukraine die Tschechische Republik  Czech Republic

When you explain that you come from any of these countries, you also have to include the definite article with the preposition - but this article changes from "die" to "der". We shall see in a subsequent section that this is because it is now in the dative case.

Grammar 6: Prepositions and feminine countries Where are you from?  Woher kommen Sie?  ich komme aus der Schweiz (Trans.: "I come from Switzerland")    Woher ist Andrea?  sie ist aus der Ukraine (Trans.: "She is from the Ukraine")   Where do you live?  Wo wohnt Mehmet?  er wohnt in der Türkei (Trans.: "He lives in Turkey")

Plural Countries
A small number of countries are written in the plural in German. In this case the definite article changes from "die" to "den":

Vocabulary 6: Plural Countries Das Land Country   die USA die Vereinigten Staaten  USA United States   die Niederlande Netherlands   Phrases   ich komme aus den USA (Trans.: "I come from the USA")     sie ist aus den Vereinigten Staaten (Trans.: "She is from the United States")     er wohnt in den Niederlanden (Trans.: "He lives in the Netherlands")

Notes
1. Note that "die Niederlande" adds an "-n" when we write "in den Niederlanden" or "aus den Niederlanden". This again is a result of the noun now being in the dative case.

2. "Amerika" is often used to translate "the United States", particularly in conversation. It should really only be used to translate the continent of America however. It is a neuter noun and is thus used without a definite article.

3. A few countries are masculine in German, particularly in the Middle East - "der Libanon" (= Lebanon), "der Irak" (= Iraq) "der Iran" (= Iran), "der Jemen" (= Yemen). They too are almost always used with the definite article, which changes from "der" to "dem" when you are describing where you are from.

Chapter 2.5: Nationalities

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