How do I know the gender of a noun?

In German, we have 3 different genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Most of the time you simply have to learn off by heart which nouns are which gender, however there are some rules which can help. For instance; days, months, seasons, most weather elements, points on the compass, and most nouns ending in -en are masculine. Nouns ending in -ig, -ling, -ant and -us are generally masculine. Nouns ending in -ei, -schaft, -heit, -keit, -ung, -ion, -ik, -ie, -enz, -ur are all feminine. Most metals, human and animal babies, verb infinitives turned into nouns and nouns ending in -ment or -ium are all neuter. Learning the genders of nouns is so important because this is what allows you to correctly agree the adjective with the noun!