die Mutter
mother
Die Mutter (the mother) is feminine and takes die as its article. The plural is die Mütter, formed by adding an umlaut over the u with no ending attached. That pattern is worth noticing, because singular and plural are otherwise spelled identically and the two dots carry the whole difference.
In everyday family life the full word is rare. Mama and Mutti are how children address their mother, roughly like "mum" and "mummy" in English. Mutter on its own sounds more formal or descriptive, so you use it when talking about someone rather than to them.
The word appears inside many common compounds. Die Muttersprache is your native language, literally "mother language". Der Muttertag is Mother's Day, which Germany celebrates on the second Sunday in May. Die Mutterschaft is motherhood, and the adjective mütterlich means motherly.
There is one surprise worth knowing. Die Mutter is also the technical word for a nut, the metal piece that screws onto a bolt. In that meaning the plural is die Muttern, with an -n ending and no umlaut. The two plural forms keep the meanings apart neatly: Mütter is always people, Muttern is always hardware.
Pronunciation: Mutter is [ˈmʊtɐ], two syllables with the stress on the first. The final -er is soft, closer to "uh" than to an English "er". In the plural Mütter, the first vowel becomes the rounded ü sound, made by shaping your lips for "oo" while saying "ee".
Article / Gender
English
mother
Singular
die Mutter
Plural
die Mütter
die Mutter appears in the following vocabulary collections:
Die Mutter kocht das Abendessen.
The mother cooks dinner.
Subject goes before the verb in simple sentences.
Ich sehe die Mutter im Garten.
I see the mother in the garden.
Use accusative after the verb 'sehen'.
Die Mutter ist freundlich.
The mother is friendly.
Adjectives after 'sein' have no ending.
- What does Mutter mean in German?
- Mutter means "mother". It is a feminine noun and takes die as its definite article: die Mutter. The same word also means "nut" in the mechanical sense, the piece that screws onto a bolt.
- What is the plural of Mutter?
- The plural is die Mütter, formed only by adding an umlaut with no ending. When the word means a mechanical nut, the plural is die Muttern instead.
- Is Mutter masculine, feminine, or neuter?
- Mutter is feminine, so it takes die in the nominative and accusative and der in the dative and genitive: ich helfe der Mutter (I help the mother).
- What is the difference between Mutter, Mutti, and Mama?
- Mutter is the neutral word you use when describing someone. Mama and Mutti are what children actually call their mother, and both sound affectionate. Mama is more common across Germany today.
- What does Muttersprache mean?
- Die Muttersprache means "native language" or "mother tongue". Someone who speaks it as a first language is called Muttersprachler (male) or Muttersprachlerin (female).