Plural Nouns
Plural Nouns
English pluralizes almost everything by adding -s. German has five different plural patterns, and which one a noun uses is largely unpredictable — so plurals, like gender, must be memorized noun by noun.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Five plural patterns instead of one
der Hund → die Hunde / das Auto → die Autos / die Frau → die Frauen / der Mann → die Männer / das Fenster → die Fenster
the dog → dogs / the car → cars / the woman → women / the man → men / the window → windows
English regularly adds -s (dog → dogs) with only a handful of irregulars (man → men, child → children). German has no single default: nouns pluralize with -e, -er, -(e)n, -s, or no change at all — sometimes combined with an umlaut shift on the stem vowel (Mann → Männer). There's no way to guess a noun's plural from its singular form alone with full reliability, so dictionaries always list the plural alongside the gender — treat both as required memorization, not optional detail.
Plural articles are gender-blind
die Hunde, die Autos, die Männer
the dogs, the cars, the men
One simplification: no matter what gender a noun was in the singular (der, die, or das), every plural noun takes die in the nominative. Gender distinctions only exist in the singular; the plural erases them, which is a small piece of relief in an otherwise memorization-heavy topic.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| German | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| der Hund → die Hunde | dair hoont → dee HOON-deh | the dog → the dogs |
| das Auto → die Autos | dahs OW-toh → dee OW-tohs | the car → the cars |
| die Frau → die Frauen | dee frow → dee FROW-en | the woman → the women |
| der Mann → die Männer | dair mahn → dee MEN-er | the man → the men |
| das Fenster → die Fenster | dahs FEN-ster → dee FEN-ster | the window → the windows |
| das Kind → die Kinder | dahs kint → dee KIN-der | the child → the children |
| die Stadt → die Städte | dee shtaht → dee SHTEH-teh | the city → the cities |