Plural of nouns

Plural forms in German

In English most nouns form their plural by adding ‘-s’ to the singular form. In German, there are several ways of forming the plural.
However, there are patterns and clues that might help you to predict the plural endings:

•   there are five main types of plural endings (listed below)

•   nouns tend to take certain endings according to their gender.

Plural endings for masculine nouns

Most take -e or -¨ e endings
Most masculine nouns take -e or -¨e in their plural forms:

-e or	®  der Arm	–  die Arme     der Schuh    –  die Schuhe
-¨ e	der Ball	–  die Bälle      der Fuß         –  die Füße

In addition, there are two more main plural endings for masculine nouns:

no ending → der Onkel     – die Onkel        der Spiegel – die Spiegel
or
+ umlaut       der Apfel       – die Äpfel         der Vater     – die Väter

-(e)n         → This ending applies to so-called weak nouns usually
                      referring to male people or animals:
                      der Junge → die Jungen     der Elefant → die Elefanten

Other endings

A few masculine nouns add -er and an umlaut wherever possible. They include:

der Mann ® die Männer                        der Wald ® die Wälder

Plural endings for feminine nouns

Most take -(e)n

Most feminine nouns take the plural ending -(e)n. This applies to all nouns ending in -e, -ei, -heit, -ion, -keit, -schaft, -tät, -ung or -ur:

-(e)n	®   die Blume die Bäckerei	–        die Blumen –        die Bäckereien
	die Tasche die Zeitung	–        die Taschen –        die Zeitungen

In addition, there are two more commonly used endings with feminine nouns:

-e +              ®  This ending applies to many feminine nouns consisting

umlaut                of one syllable:

die Frucht  –  die Früchte         die Hand  –  die Hände

die Nacht   –  die Nächte         die Stadt   –  die Städte

-nen             ®   Female nouns with the ending -in add -nen: 

                           die Freundin ® die Freundinnen

Other endings

A few feminine nouns only add an umlaut to their plural forms. The most important are: die Mutter ® die Mütter and die Tochter ® die Töchter.

Plural endings for neuter nouns

Most take -e
Here are the three main plural endings for neuter nouns:

-e                 ®  This ending is the most common with neuter nouns:

das Bein    –  die Beine         das Jahr     –  die Jahre das Regal  –  die Regale             das Stück  –  die Stücke

-er or          ®  das Kind    –  die Kinder       das Kleid    –  die Kleider

-¨ er (when          das Gehalt –  die Gehälter  das Glas      –  die Gläser

possible)

no change ® There is no change for most neuter nouns ending in
                          -el, -er, chen and -lein:

  das Segel    –  die Segel       das Mädchen – die Mädchen das Messer –  die Messer  

  das Männlein – die Männlein

Other endings

A few neuter nouns have -(e)n in the plural. They include: 

das Auge ® die Augen, das Bett ® die Betten, das Interesse ® die Interessen.

Plural endings with -s

All three genders have some plural endings with -s. However, this type of ending is mainly used for words imported from foreign languages, in abbreviations and names:

das Hotel	®	die Hotels
der PC	®	die PCs
Herr und Frau Schmidt	®	die Schmidts

Foreign nouns which don’t add an -s in the plural include: der Manager

® die Manager, der Computer ® die Computer.

Also note that words from the English which end in ‘-y’ have the German plural form -ys: die Party ® die Partys.