What do the German words «Nostalgie, Musik, Konzentration, Qualität, Freiheit, Schwierigkeit, Erinnerung» and «Freundschaft» have in common?

Aside from many possible associations, from a grammatical viewpoint it can be easily be seen that:
1. We are dealing with nouns, which is why they are capitalised.
2. Their ending (suffix) also reveals that all these nouns are feminine.

Closely connected with this information are two main difficulties for all those who learn German as a foreign language. But not only for them, because case-sensitivity is one of the most frequent error sources for native German speakers as well, as the generally fixed gender of a noun determines its inflection (declension) and thereby its correct form in the sentence.

Which is why it is not as silly as seems to keep these endings in mind,
in other words: It makes sense to store them in your long-term memory.

The most convenient way is through repetition, e.g. as some kind of grammatical “mantra”:

–ie, –ik, –ion, –tät, –heit, –keit, –schaft, –ung

Attentive readers will have noticed that some of these endings can be found even in this short text. They can therefore conclude that on the one hand they are very frequent, and on the other, that the nominative form should be “die Großschreibung “, “die Information”,  and “die Wiederholung”.

Moreover, the endings «-heit» and «-keit» both have in common that they can “transform adjectives into nouns”: Seen like this, it is time-saving while learning because “Schönheit” can be split into “schön” and  «-heit». This works for «Klugheit» and «Dummheit», «Schwierigkeit» and «Leichtigkeit»: That «schwierig» exists as an adjective, but not *leichtig, can be easily explained by its pronunciation: *Leichtkeit cannot be pronounced as well as «Leichtigkeit». This is also valid e.g. for «Schnelligkeit».

 

On the other hand, “Leichtheit” definitely exists, although the word formation is rarely used. The state of weightlessness, expressed as «Gewichtlosigkeit» (absence of weight) or «Schwerelosigkeit», is not that easy to achieve either …

The ending «-heit» also combines with nouns: e.g. «Mensch» + «-heit» to form «Menschheit» (humanity). As well as with nouns, «-schaft», e.g. «Freund» + «-schaft» (friendship) also combines with verbs like «erben» + «-schaft» to form «Erbschaft» (inheritance).

Conclusion: A look at the ending never hurts!

*the asterisk indicates grammatically incorrect forms

@ bine