when to use der die or das?

[LadyAlys]

I was practicing my german when it told me to translate "the children read a book"I type out "das Kinder lesen ein buch" and it tells me I should use die instead of das. Duolingo says kinder is a neuter noun, so why do I use die? Does the der die or das change depending on the type of sentence? If it does, is there any way to predict it or do I just memorize it?

[relox84]

the der/die/das articles are the singular articles, in the plural all nouns use the die article:

Der Mann (the man) -> Die Männer (the men)
Die Frau (the woman) -> Die Frauen (the women)
Das Kind (the child) -> Die Kinder (the children)

[Elagui]

All plural nouns use "die", "Kind" is singular, "Kinder" is plural.
Use "der" for masculine,
Use "die" for feminine,
and use "das" for neuter singular nouns.

[MichaelRos591172]

no, not all plural nouns, it depends on the time, or dative/genetiv. As f.e. "es ist eine Frage der Zeiten" even not "die Zeiten". or
"Es ist das Spielzeug der Kinder/der Frauen" not die Kinder/Frauen.
"Wir sehen den Ball der Spieler"
Only "das" is never used in plurals.

[Elagui]

We're both level 5 and have only come across the nominative at this point - let's not make it more complicated than it has to be. It doesn't help to give me examples that are above my level because it's all Greek to me right now.

[MichaelRos591172]

Don't bother, i just thougt that it could be interesting for you, seeing diferences and details in early learning. You're right, excuse me and believe me , that there are a lot of native german speakers, making faults in even this case ;-) so it's really very dificult. Have fun and keep on learning and whenever you have a question depending on Germany or the language, please ask me.

[Elagui]

It will be - when I get to it. I also know how beneficial it is to teach others as it's a review for you even if it's new to them. I'm used to conjugation having studied in Spanish and Portuguese - but case is brand new to me. I really wish I had more time to put into it - but I'll be learning it at a snail's pace as it is.

[pentaan]

In Duolingo's web version (www.duolingo.com) in the "Desktop mode" of your browser

• many skills have grammar "Tips and notes" under their lessons
• the three grammatical genders (der, die, das) are explained in the skills "Basics 1" and "The"

[bleusclues]

because children is plural and die is used for plural nouns

[The_Vallean]

You need to learn the the articles by heart. Every German noun has a specific gender, either it's masculine (der), feminine (die), or neutral (das), and there is no scheme, sorry...

But as allready pointed out, "die" is the regular basic plural article.