Chapter 3: The Family

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3.4 Plurals of German nouns

Chapter 3: The Family
Overview
3.1 Conversation:
Im Studio (1)
3.2 How old are you?
3.3 Conversation:
Im Studio (2)
3.4 Plurals of
German nouns
3.5 Indefinite articles
3.6 The accusative case

With the exception of nouns such as "children" and "sheep", English

plurals are invariably formed by adding "-s" to the singular form.
Forming the plural is by no means as simple as this in German, where
there are a number of possible plural endings. It will thus be necessary for
the student to learn the plural of each noun as well as its gender - and from
now on we will list each noun which we encounter with its plural form and
the correct form of the definite article.
In the table below are the plurals of some of the nouns that we have
encountered so far:

3.7 Possessive adjectives

3.8 Numbers: 1-20
3.9 Background:
German Families
3.10 Vocabulary:
The Family
3.11 Vocabulary: Pets
3.12 Germans and
their dogs
Exercises

Grammar 2: Plurals of German nouns

Masculine

Feminine

Neuter

Mnner

Frauen

Kinder

("men")

("women")

("children")

Freunde

Freundinnen

Bros

("friends")

("friends")

("offices")

Shne

Tchter

Mdchen

Index

("sons")

("daughters")

("girls")

Chapter 1

Tage

Nchte

Lnder

("days")

("nights")

("countries")

Beginners' German

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5

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Guidelines for forming the plural

It will later be possible to determine a number of rules as to which noun
takes which plural ending. For the moment, we will restrict ourselves to
pointing out a few general guidelines - but (as ever!) there are a large
number of exceptions to these rules!
1. Feminine nouns
Feminine nouns are the most predictable in their plural form. The
majority of them add "-en":
i.e. Frau + "-en" = Frauen.
Feminine nouns which end in "-in" (such as those describing
professions and nationalities) add "-nen" in the plural:
i.e. Freundin + "-nen" = Freundinnen.
Or: Englnderin + "-nen" = Englnderinnen.
Yet take care: some feminine nouns also form their plurals in other
ways, such as Nchte and Tchter!
2. Masculine and neuter nouns

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Masculine and neuter nouns form their plural in a number of ways.

Some of them add an "-e":
i.e. Tag + "-e" = Tage.
Others add an "-e" and also add an "umlaut" to the vowel:
i.e. Sohn + "umlaut" + "-e" = Shne.
Other (mainly) masculine and neuter nouns add "-er" in the plural:
i.e. Kind + "-er" = Kinder.
Others add "-er" and also add an "umlaut" to the vowel:
i.e. Mann + "umlaut" + "-er" = Mnner.
Some nouns add "-s" in the plural, although there are not as many of
them as there are in English, and they tend to be words imported from
other languages:
i.e. Bro + "-s" = Bros.
To make matters more complicated, some nouns remain the same in
the plural:
i.e. Mdchen (singular and plural).

Chapter 3.5: Indefinite articles

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