German uses five endings to mark the plural of nouns: - (no change) - e - er - (e)n - s Some nouns of the first three types add an umlaut in the plural. There is a gender distinction for German nouns in the singular (der, die, das) but there is no gender distinction in the plural. All plural nouns (in the nominative and accusative) take the definite article "die". The indefinite article "ein" has no plural form but other "ein"-words like "kein" do (keine). Possessive adjectives (like "mein, dein," etc.) are also ein-words and form the plural accordingly ("meine, deine," etc.). When learning a new noun, always memorize the plural form as well. There is no sure way to predict the plural form but these rules will help you to make an educated guess. <Examples: <Type 1 (no change): das Zimmer (die Zimmer), das Mädchen (die Mädchen) <Type 1 (with umlaut): der Vater (die Väter), der Garten (die Gärten), der Bruder (die Brüder), die Mutter (die Mütter) <Type 2 (-e): der Abend, der Monat, das Geräusch, das Telefon <Type 2 (with umlaut): der Fuß (die Füße), der Stuhl, der Sohn, die Wand, die Hand <Type 3 (-er): das Kind (die Kinder) <Type 3 (with umlaut): der Mann (die Männer), das Wort, das Buch, das Haus <Type 4 (-en/n/nen) -en: der Professor (die Professoren), die Tür, die Uhr, das Bett. -n: a) nouns which end on a vowel (mainly on -e) in the singular: die Adresse, die Straße, die Woche but a number of b) nouns ending on consonants (mostly -r) in the singular: die Nummer (die Nummern) -n: N- nouns are a group of masculine nouns that take -n or -en in all cases but the nominative singular e.g.: der Student -en, (den Studenten, dem Studenten, die Studenten), der Mensch-en, -en, der Junge-n,-n, der Nachbar-n,-n -nen: nouns derived from masculine forms. Their singular forms end in -in: die Studentin (die Studentinnen), die Amerikanerin, die Professorin. These nouns are always feminine. <Type 5 (-s): foreign words like: das Auto, das Radio |