Let’s LearnDeutsch

Lesson 7 of 69 · A1, Unit 2: Building blocks

Plurals

English mostly adds -s. German has five common plural patterns: add -e, -er, -(e)n, -s, or nothing — often with an umlaut on top. Der Tisch becomes die Tische, das Buch becomes die Bücher, die Lampe becomes die Lampen.

There's comfort in two rules: the plural article is always die, whatever the noun's gender, and patterns line up with the noun's ending more often than you'd think. Dictionaries list the plural with every noun; learn it alongside the article.

By the end you can:

  • recognise the five main plural patterns
  • use die with every plural noun
  • predict the plural of feminine nouns ending in -e, -ung, and -heit

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