Suffixes often carry a specific gender. For example, in German, diminutives with the suffixes "-chen" and "-lein" (meaning "little, young") are always neuter, even if they refer to people, as with "Mädchen" ("girl") and "Fräulein" ("young woman") (see below). Similarly, the suffix "-ling", which makes countable nouns from uncountable nouns ("Teig" "dough" → "Teigling" "piece of dough"), or personal nouns from abstract nouns ("Lehre" "teaching", "Strafe" "punishment" → "Lehrling" "apprentice", "Sträfling" "convict") or adjectives ("feige" "cowardly" → "Feigling" "coward"), always produces masculine nouns. And the German suffixes "-heit" and "-keit" (comparable with "-hood" and "-ness" in English) produce feminine nouns.