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Plural Formation
How German nouns become plural — five patterns, and one easy article.
Maskulin Feminin Neutrum Plural
The one easy part: the article
Good news first: in the plural, every gender uses the same article — die (Nominativ/Akkusativ). There is no der/die/das to worry about. The hard part is the ending on the noun, and there are five main patterns.
Because the ending is unpredictable, you should always learn the plural together with the word, exactly as you learn the gender: der Tisch, die Tische.
Because the ending is unpredictable, you should always learn the plural together with the word, exactly as you learn the gender: der Tisch, die Tische.
| Maskulin | Feminin | Neutrum | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | der Tisch | die Blume | das Kind | — |
| Plural | die Tische | die Blumen | die Kinder | die … |
The five patterns
Most nouns fall into one of these five groups. The "¨" means the stem vowel takes an umlaut (a → ä, o → ö, u → ü).
| Ending | Example (sing. → plural) | Typical of |
|---|---|---|
| -e / ¨-e | der Tisch → die Tische · der Stuhl → die Stühle | many maskulin nouns |
| -(e)n | die Blume → die Blumen · die Frau → die Frauen | most feminin nouns |
| -er / ¨-er | das Kind → die Kinder · das Buch → die Bücher | many neutrum nouns |
| -s | das Auto → die Autos · das Baby → die Babys | loanwords, words ending in a vowel |
| — / ¨ (no ending) | der Lehrer → die Lehrer · der Vater → die Väter | nouns in -er, -en, -el |
Two reliable rules
Almost everything about plurals must be memorized, but two patterns are dependable:
1. Feminin nouns ending in -e take -n: die Blume → die Blumen, die Katze → die Katzen, die Lampe → die Lampen.
2. Feminin job/person words in -in double the n and add -nen: die Lehrerin → die Lehrerinnen, die Studentin → die Studentinnen.
1. Feminin nouns ending in -e take -n: die Blume → die Blumen, die Katze → die Katzen, die Lampe → die Lampen.
2. Feminin job/person words in -in double the n and add -nen: die Lehrerin → die Lehrerinnen, die Studentin → die Studentinnen.
Die Blumen sind schön.
The flowers are beautiful.
die Blume (feminin) → die Blumen (-n, because it ends in -e). Plural article is always "die".
Zwei Studentinnen lernen zusammen.
Two (female) students study together.
die Studentin → die Studentinnen (-nen). Male form: der Student → die Studenten.
Dativ plural: add -n
One extra rule catches learners out: in the Dativ plural, the article becomes den and the noun takes an extra -n (unless the plural already ends in -n or -s).
die Kinder → mit den Kindern · die Freunde → mit den Freunden.
die Kinder → mit den Kindern · die Freunde → mit den Freunden.
Ich spiele mit den Kindern.
I play with the children.
die Kinder → Dativ den Kindern (die → den, noun + n) after "mit". This is why "den" is not always Akkusativ — it is also the Dativ plural article.
Wir fahren mit den Autos.
We go by the cars.
die Autos → den Autos — no extra -n, because the plural already ends in -s.
Plurals in one line
Plural article is always die. Five endings: -e, -(e)n, -er, -s, —, often with an umlaut.
Learn the plural with the word. In the Dativ plural, article → den and the noun adds -n (mit den Kindern).
Related
- Guessing Plurals — tips to predict the plural from the ending
- Nominativ — articles and grammatical gender
- Dativ — where the Dativ-plural -n appears