German words ending in -el

Most sites will tell you that -el is usually masculine. On the words a B1 syllabus actually asks for, it is not. The masculine ones and the rest come out near enough level that the ending decides nothing, and you would be wrong about as often as you are right.

The reason is that -el is not one thing. Der Löffel, der Schlüssel and der Vogel are old Germanic nouns that happen to have landed masculine, and nothing you can see in them tells you so. Schlüssel is the one that still reads, since it is schließen with an old ending on it. Die Kartoffel, die Zwiebel and die Nudel are a different family of everyday feminine nouns. Das Beispiel, das Ziel and das Mittel are neuter, and das Hotel is a French loan. Four unrelated groups landed on the same three letters, and no grammar ties them together.

So there is no rule here. An -el word is learned with its article attached, the way you learn any word whose ending tells you nothing.

An ending that is right about half the time still feels like a rule while you are using it, and it fails in the exam, where there is no time to reconsider. The endings that do predict cost you almost nothing to learn. Spend the time here instead.