German words ending in -zeug

A noun ending in -zeug is das, because das Zeug is the word it ends on.

das Baby the character this deck pins every das-word on

-zeug is not a suffix. It is a whole German noun, das Zeug, sitting at the end of a compound. In German the last element of a compound decides the article for the entire thing, so das Flugzeug, das Werkzeug, das Spielzeug and das Feuerzeug are das for the same reason: they are all a kind of Zeug.

That makes this the most dependable ending on the site, and it also makes it the most useful one to understand rather than memorise. The same mechanism runs the rest of the language. Die Zeit gives die Arbeitszeit, der Tag gives der Sonntag, das Zeug gives all of these. Learn the last word and you have the article for every compound built on it.

It works on words you have never seen. Meet a Fahrzeug, a Spielzeug or a Kraftfahrzeug for the first time and you do not need to look anything up, because the ending is already a word you know.

Worked examples

das Flugzeug aeroplane
das Werkzeug tool
das Spielzeug toy
das Feuerzeug lighter
das Fahrzeug vehicle

Measured on this deck

100% of the 7 nouns ending in -zeug are das

All 7 of the -zeug nouns in this deck are das, so 100 percent. A compound cannot do anything else, and that is why it beats a tendency carrying the same score.

das Flugzeug die Flugzeuge
das Fahrzeug die Fahrzeuge
das Feuerzeug die Feuerzeuge
das Kraftfahrzeug die Kraftfahrzeuge
das Spielzeug die Spielzeuge
das Werkzeug die Werkzeuge
das Zeug die Zeuge

What a card looks like

Flugzeug

Try it

No -zeug compound reached the mixed deck below, which is the wrong place to practise this one anyway. Let the rule fire on any compound whose last word you already know, not only on these.

Wohnung