German plurals: rules, examples, and exceptions

Two is often better than one. 👯‍♀️ Think about it—two heads, double the cookies, twice the puppies! But if you want to talk about more than one of anything in German, it’s tricky! That’s why we're putting our two heads together to bring you some tips for German pluralization patterns, starting with the basics.

In this post:

• When to add -n/-en
• When to add -s
• When to add -e
• When there is no ending
• When to add -er

German plurals 101

Here are two facts you can count on with German plurals:

1. the definite determiner will always be “die” (in nominative)
2. the noun itself with be affected in one of four ways:
   • change to the noun ending
   • umlaut of the stem vowel
   • change to the noun ending + umlaut of the stem vowel
   • no change to the noun at all

That’s where the certainty stops, but luckily there are some fairly reliable patterns for you to learn.

When to add -n or -en

Good news! An estimated 90% of feminine nouns form the plural by adding -n or -en… but some masculine and neuter nouns do as well.

For most nouns ending in -e, simply add -n to the singular noun (and remember to use die for all plurals in nominative case!).

The -n ending also appears for feminine nouns ending in -er or -el:

As for the -en pattern, use it for the majority of feminine nouns that don’t end in -e:

To make sure it’s not too easy 😅 a couple of masculine and neuter nouns also take the -en plural ending—you’ll need to memorize those:

When to add -s

German words that end in a vowel other than -e (so, -a, -i, -o, -u, or -y) usually add an -s to form the plural:

This is not a strict rule, so don’t be surprised if you come across exceptions. Looking at you, Pizzen! 🍕🍕

German plurals 201

Are you still with us? 🫣 Great, because it’s time to add more noun endings and umlauts into the pluralization mix!

Umlauts are vowels that have undergone a shift, causing the letters a, o and u to be pronounced closer to the front of the mouth. This change is represented by two small dots above the vowels: ä, ö and ü.

When to add -e

Many masculine nouns and some neuter nouns form their plural by adding an -e:

Even a few feminine nouns take this ending:

Wait a second—you might be saying—something’s different here! Good catch! If you look closely, you’ll notice that the stem vowels become umlauts in the plural. This will always be the case for feminine nouns that add an -e in the plural, if the vowel is umlautable.

Masculine and neuter nouns that add -e aren’t immune to this umlaut process. Compare the plurals of der Hund and das Brot above with these:

These two patterns, adding -e and umlaut + -e, account for the majority of masculine and neuter nouns!

When no ending is added

Masculine and neuter nouns that end in -el, -en, or -er don’t add a plural ending. You'll have to pay attention to the determiner to know if the noun is singular or plural!

But some also get an umlaut—you'll have to memorize the masculine nouns where this applies:

While these patterns generally apply to masculine and neuter nouns, there are two feminine nouns that follow this pattern, too:

Okay, you’ve made it to the final category!

When to add -er

Some masculine and neuter nouns add -er instead of just -e. But if they have an umlautable stem vowel (remember: a, o, or u), then they do get umlauted.

Plurally confused?

Your best bet is to learn German plural forms alongside the singular. Use these guidelines together with some memorization and you'll learn them in no time! Take it one Wort and one Plural at a time, and before you know it, you’ll be confidently handling all the Wörter and Plurale! 💪