Breakdown of Die Gegnerin bleibt nach dem Spiel freundlich.
Questions & Answers about Die Gegnerin bleibt nach dem Spiel freundlich.
Gegner is the general word for opponent. It is grammatically masculine, but it can be used in a gender‑neutral way in some contexts.
Gegnerin is specifically a female opponent. The ending -in is a common way to form the feminine version of many nouns that refer to people:
- der Lehrer → die Lehrerin (male teacher → female teacher)
- der Spieler → die Spielerin (male player → female player)
- der Gegner → die Gegnerin (male opponent → female opponent)
So Gegnerin tells you explicitly that the opponent is female.
The subject of the sentence is Gegnerin, which is a feminine noun.
In the nominative case (the case used for the subject), the definite articles are:
- der – masculine
- die – feminine
- das – neuter
- die – plural
Because Gegnerin is feminine and is the subject, you must use die:
Die Gegnerin bleibt nach dem Spiel freundlich.
Der Gegnerin would be wrong here, because der with a feminine noun appears in other cases (e.g. dative or genitive), not in the nominative.