{"id":93558,"date":"2023-07-21T19:22:06","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T23:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/german-plural\/"},"modified":"2025-01-31T00:12:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T05:12:33","slug":"german-plural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/german\/german-plural\/","title":{"rendered":"Plural Nouns in German"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you imagine a world without plurals?<\/p>\n

We’d never be able to talk about anything<\/a> unless it was on its own!<\/p>\n

So make sure you know how to use these precious plurals in German, too. You know, to order food for you and\u00a0<\/em>your friend<\/a>\u00a0or for when you want to watch two movies in one night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To get you there, this post will guide you through five ways to build German plurals, with plenty of examples to help.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How to Form German Plurals<\/h2>\n

In English, we have it easy. We usually only need to add an “s” on to the end of nouns to create plurals: “dog” becomes “dogs” and “tree” becomes “trees.”<\/p>\n

In German, things are a little more complex. There are five different ways to create a plural noun.<\/p>\n

There is one golden rule to remember when building your plurals, however: Plural nouns always use\u00a0die<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0as their definite article. You’ll notice this when looking over all the examples in this post!<\/p>\n

First, though, here are the main rules in chart form:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t
Which nouns?<\/b><\/th>Rule applied<\/b><\/th>Singular forms<\/b><\/th>Plural forms<\/b><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
masculine nouns with the endings -eur, -ich, -ier, -ig, -ling, -\u00f6r and many single-syllable feminine nouns<\/td>add -e<\/td>der\/die Hund<\/i> (the dog)
\nder K\u00f6nig<\/i> (the king)<\/td>		die Hunde<\/i> (the dogs)
\nthe K\u00f6nige<\/i> (the kings)
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
many single-syllable neuter nouns, feminine nouns never form the plural with -r\/-er<\/td>add -r\/-er<\/td>das Wort<\/i> (the word)<\/td>die W\u00f6rter<\/i> (the words)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
masculine nouns with the endings -e, -ent, and, -ant, -ist, -or, feminine nouns with the endings -e, -in, -ion, -ik, -heit, -keit, -schaft, -t\u00e4t, -ung and the endings -ma, -um, -us in foreign words are usually replaced by -en<\/td>add -n\/-en<\/td>der Student<\/i> (the student)
\ndie Nation<\/i> (the nation)<\/td>		die Studenten<\/i> (the students)
\ndie Nationen<\/i> (the nations)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns with the endings -a, -i, -o, -u, -y and family names<\/td>add -s<\/td>Auto<\/i> (car)
\nWeber (family name)<\/td>		die Autos<\/i> (the cars)
\ndie Webers (the Webers)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
masculine nouns with the endings -el, -en, -er and neuter nouns with the endings -chen, -lein
\n<\/td>		keep the same<\/td>der L\u00f6ffel<\/i> (the spoon)
\ndas M\u00e4dchen<\/i> (the girl)<\/td>		die L\u00f6ffel<\/i> (spoon)
\ndie M\u00e4dchen<\/i> (girls)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

1. Add an -e<\/em> ending<\/h3>\n

This is the most common way to form a plural\u2014simply add an -e to the end of the word, much like how we add an \u201cs\u201d in English! 89% of masculine nouns and 75% of feminine nouns take this form.<\/p>\n

All masculine<\/span>\u00a0nouns with the endings\u00a0-eur, -ich, -ier, -ig, -ling, -\u00f6r <\/em>take this -e plural ending.<\/strong><\/p>\n

der K\u00e4fig \u2192 die K\u00e4fige<\/i><\/em> (the cage \u2192the cages)<\/p>\n

Many single-syllable feminine<\/span> nouns also take this ending.<\/strong><\/p>\n

die Hand \u2192die Hande<\/em> (the hand \u2192 the hands)<\/p>\n

Feminine nouns and most masculine plural nouns need an umlaut.<\/strong><\/p>\n

der Koch \u2192 die K\u00f6che<\/em> (the chef \u2192 the chefs)<\/p>\n

der Hund \u2192 die Hunde<\/em> (the dog \u2192 the dogs) [This masculine noun doesn’t need the umlaut]<\/p>\n

die Gans \u2192 die G\u00e4nse<\/em> (the goose \u2192 the geese)<\/p>\n

Neuter plural nouns hardly ever add an umlaut.<\/strong><\/p>\n

das Pferd \u2192 die Pferde\u00a0<\/em>(the horse \u2192 the horses)<\/p>\n

2. Add an -er<\/em> ending<\/h3>\n

Many\u00a0single-syllable neuter<\/span> nouns take this ending.<\/strong><\/p>\n

das Haus \u2192 die H\u00e4user<\/em> (the house \u2192 <\/em>the houses)<\/p>\n

It also occurs in masculine nouns, but very rarely.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

der Mund \u2192 die M\u00fcnder <\/em>(the mouth\u00a0 \u2192 the mouths)<\/p>\n