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2.7 The plural of masculine nouns
There is no reliable way of telling which noun will have which ending for the plural, and you should therefore:
always check the plural formation of a noun in your dictionary. The plural ending, with
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Umlaut indicated where applicable, is normally listed afterthe gender and the genitive case ending; always learn a noun with its plural form – saying it aloud helps to make it stick!
In practice, the gender and form of a noun can give helpful clues to its plural. These are shown in the table below, and sections 2.7–2.10 give you more details.
plural masculine feminine neuter
no ending (–)
Those ending in NONE Those ending in -el, -en,
-er
-el, -en, -er, -chen, -lein
no ending,with Umlaut About 20
(¨–)
TWO: ONE: Kloster Mutter, Tochter
Add -e MOST
very rare MOST (-e) Kenntnis -nisse Add -e, with Umlaut Many monosyllables about 30 ONE: Floß (¨–e) that can have Umlaut Add -er, with Umlaut About 12 NONE Many monosyllables if poss. (-er)/(¨–er)
Add -n or -en
All in -e,and a few others, MOST About 12
(-n)/(-en)
mainly animate beings
Most masculine nouns ending in -el, -en and -er form their plural without adding an ending or Umlaut:
der Onkel – die Onkel der Haken – die Haken der Bäcker – die Bäcker der Computer – die Computer
About twenty nouns ending in -el, -en and -er add Umlaut in the plural, but no ending:
der Apfel – die Äpfel der Mantel – die Mäntel der Vogel – die Vögel der Garten – die Gärten der Laden – die Läden der Bruder – die Brüder der Hammer – die Hämmer der Vater – die Väter
Most other masculine nouns add -e in the plural:
der Arm – die Arme der Hund – die Hunde der König – die Könige der Schuh – die Schuhe der Tisch – die Tische der Termin – die Termine
If the noun has one syllable and a vowel which can have Umlaut, it frequently adds Umlaut as well as the ending -e – but not always. In practice, about 75% of the nouns which could have Umlaut do so:
Butquite a lot of common nouns which could have Umlaut don’t:
About a dozen masculine nouns add -er/¨ –er. The most common ones are:
der Arzt – die Ärzte der Bart – die Bärte der Sohn – die Söhne der Stuhl – die Stühle der Tanz – die Tänze der Wolf – die Wölfe
der Arm – die Arme der Besuch – die Besuche der Monat – die Monate der Punkt – die Punkte der Tag – die Tage der Verlust – die Verluste
der Geist – die Geister der Gott – die Götter der Mann – die Männer der Rand – die Ränder der Wald – die Wälder der Wurm – die Würmer
A number of masculine nouns add-n/-en.
Most of these are ‘WEAK’ MASCULINENOUNS (see 2.12) which denote humans or animals:
der Affe – die Affen der Bär – die Bären der Franzose – die Franzosen der Junge – die Jungen der Mensch – die Menschen der Student – die Studenten
A few others ending in -e which have an irregular singular (see 2.12):
