Learning German Plurals

In English, it's relatively easy to talk about more than one thing - usually you just add an s to a word. But there are plurals that stump learners of our
language. How many childs do you have, or rather children ? Are they silly little gooses, uh geese ? And what about those fishes in the deep blue sea aren't they fish ?

In German plurals seem to be just as confusing, but there is a method to the madness. In German, there are rules about forming plurals, in fact, an
abundance of rules. This is what makes forming plurals in German such a challenge. For now, remember that when a noun becomes plural in German, the
noun marker becomes plural with it. In German, the articlesder, die and das all become die in their plural form.

Everybody knows that if you've got more than one cat you've got cats. If you buy more
than one red Corvette you've got Corvettes. In German, however, it's a little trickier. When nouns become plural in German, the noun either remains
unchanged (e.g. M dchen remains M dchen in the plural) or takes -e, -er, -n, -en or in a few cases -s .

Many nouns undergo a vowel modification. There are rules for forming plurals in German. However there are many exceptions to these rules. The best
way to be sure that you are forming the plural of a noun correctly is to memorize it along with the noun and the article. The following tables give you some
basic rules on how to form plurals.

When the nouns in Table 1 and Table 2 become plural, they take either -n or -en . A majority of German nouns fall into this group, including most feminine
nouns. The nouns in this group never take an umlaut (the two dots above a vowel) in the plural, but if they already have one in the singular, it is retained.

When the nouns ending in -e, -el and -er in Table 1 become plural, the take -n .

Table 1.
German Noun
Singular

German Noun
Plural

English Meaning

das Auge
dAs ou-guh

die Auge ndee ou-guhn

Eye(s)

der Bauer
deyR bou-uhR

die Bauer ndee bou-uhRn

Farmer(s)

die Gruppe
dee gRoo-puh

die Gruppe ndee gRoopuhn

Group(s)

die Kartoffel
dee kAR-to-fuhl

die Kartoffel ndee kAR-tofuhln

Potato(es)

The majority of the nouns in Table 2 that take the ending -en in the plural are feminine nouns ending in -ung, -ion, -keit, -schaft and -t t . All nouns
referring to female persons or animals ending in -in double the n in the plural form.

Table 2.
German Noun
Singular

German Noun
Plural

English Meaning

das Herz
dAs heRts

die Herz endee heR-tsuhn

Heart(s)

das Ohr
dAs ohR

die Ohr endee oh-Ruhn

Ear(s)

die Freiheit
dee fRay-hayt

die Freiheit endee fRayhay-tuhn

Liberty (ies)

die Lwin
dee l h-vin

die Lwinn endee l h-vinuhn

The lioness(es)

die Zeitung
dee tsay-toong

die Zeitung endee tsaytoon-guhn

Newspaper(s)

die Religion
dee Rey-lee-gee-ohn

die Religion endee Rey-leegee-oh-nuhn

Religion(s)

die Mannschaft
dee mAn-shAft

die Mannschaft endee

mAn-shAf-tuhn

Crew(s), Team(s)

die Qualitt
dee kvah-lee-t ht

die Qualitt endee kvahlee-t h-ten

Quality(ies)