German words ending in -istin

-ist is the Greek and Latin agent ending that English spells the same way. Der Journalist, der Polizist, der Tourist, der Spezialist. Put -in after it and you have the feminine, and -in is feminine with no qualification attached.

So this page and the -erin page are one rule with two different words attached in front of it. Wherever -in has been added to a masculine noun, the result is die. Learn that once and you have covered both endings and most of the job titles a B1 exam will put in front of you.

What the rule needs is that the -in was added. Der Cousin ends in the same two letters, names a person, and is masculine, because nothing was added to anything: the word came whole out of French with the stress on that last syllable. Der Mandarin, the old Chinese official, is the same case. Say the word to yourself and the difference is audible, since the suffix is quiet and unstressed while these carry the beat.

The masculine side needs a line too, because you will be using both. -ist nouns are weak masculines: they take -en everywhere except the nominative singular, so it is den Journalisten and mit dem Polizisten. The feminine forms do none of that. Adding -in fixes the gender and tidies the case endings in the same move.

The ending is narrow rather than shaky. It needs an -ist noun to exist before it can build anything, and a beginner syllabus does not hold many of those.