German words ending in -orin
A noun ending in -orin is die. Add -in to an -or noun and the gender flips with it.
Latin agent nouns arrived in German masculine and stayed there: der Autor, der Direktor, der Professor, der Doktor. Each one has a feminine counterpart made the same way, by adding -in, and each counterpart is die: die Autorin, die Direktorin, die Professorin, die Doktorin.
The suffix doing the work is -in, which makes feminine agent nouns with no exceptions at all. Learn that once rather than per word, because it also covers -erin, -istin and -eurin, and it means half the job titles you meet come in pairs you can predict.
Say them out loud, because the stress moves. Der Autor is stressed on the first syllable, AU-tor, while die Autorin pulls it onto the second, au-TO-rin. The shift is always one syllable to the right, onto the o, wherever the masculine started from: pro-FES-sor becomes pro-fes-SO-rin, di-REK-tor becomes di-rek-TO-rin. Getting that shift right is one of the quiet markers of a speaker who has listened to German rather than only read it.
Worked examples
- die Autorin author not in the deck, unchecked
- die Direktorin director not in the deck, unchecked
Not in this deck
This deck holds the masculine half of these pairs, Autor and Direktor and Professor among them, and none of the feminine forms, so there is nothing here to measure and no figure to print. The examples above come from German rather than from the deck. That is what a page looks like for an ending a beginner syllabus has not got round to yet.
Try it
The drill below is the mixed starter deck and no -orin word is in it. Rehearse this one away from the cards instead. Take any -or noun you know, add -in, and say die in front of it.
Wohnung