The leading gradient terms in the kinetic energy densities of the electrons and holes in Ge and Si type semiconductors are calculated including band structure effects. Band structure effects are found to increase these gradient terms substantially over those for isotropic bands. The surface properties of electron—hole drops in Ge are studied using these gradient terms with several local energy densities, and band structure effects in the gradient terms are shown to increase the surface thickness, surface energy and dipole barrier over isotropic band results. The difference in the chemical potentials of the electrons and holes obtained from these approximate energy functionals indicates that the drop becomes positively charged, which is opposite in sign to that proposed recently by Rice.