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 ä dchen remains M
ä 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 gRoo-puhn
|
Group(s)
|
die
Kartoffel
dee kAR-to-fuhl |
die
Kartoffel ndee kAR-to-fuhln
|
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 ä 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 fRay-hay-tuhn
|
Liberty
(ies)
|
die
Löwin
dee l ö h-vin |
die
Löwinn endee l ö h-vi-nuhn
|
The
lioness(es)
|
die
Zeitung
dee tsay-toong |
die
Zeitung endee tsay-toon-guhn
|
Newspaper(s)
|
die
Religion
dee Rey-lee-gee-ohn |
die
Religion endee Rey-lee-gee-oh-nuhn
|
Religion(s)
|
die
Mannschaft
dee mAn-shAft |
die
Mannschaft endee mAn-shAf-tuhn
|
Crew(s),
Team(s)
|
die
Qualität
dee kvah-lee-t ä ht |
die
Qualität endee kvah-lee-t ä h-ten
|
Quality(ies)
|
