8 Section 1-8 (7/10) -- German 101

8 Section 1-8 1–8: Plurals So far, you have learned that German nouns have a grammatical gender (der, die or das). Now you will learn how to make them plural. In English, we usually add an –s or –es to the end of the word: - book→books - computer→computers - hobby→hobbies In German, however, there are several different endings to form plurals. You will need to learn the plural form when you learn new words. The dictionary form of German nouns will show letters that come after the noun. These should be added to the word to form the plural. 75-90% of masculine and neuter nouns add -e - der Tisch, -e→die Tische - das Papier, -e→die Papiere - das Heft, -e→die Hefte - der Filzstift, -e→die Filzstifte Occasionally, these words will add an umlaut in addition to –e. - der Stuhl, –¨e→die Stühle - der Rucksack, -¨e→ die Rucksäcke 75-90% of feminine nouns add –n or –en. - die Tafel, -n→die Tafeln - die Uhr, -en→die Uhren - die Landkarte, –n→die Landkarten - die Tür→die Türen - die Tasche→die Taschen Occasionally, these words will add an umlaut in addition to –n or –en. - die Maus, -¨e→die Mäuse - die Wand, -¨e→die Wände Feminine words ending in –in that denote people also add –en or –n but add an extra –n- between the noun and the plural ending. - die Professorin, -nen→die Professorinnen - die Studentin, –nen→die Studentinnen - die Lehrerin, –nen→die Lehrerinnen Shortened forms and borrowed words tend to add an –s. - das Handy→die Handys - der Kuli→die Kulis - der Laptop→die Laptops - der Gummi→die Gummis - das Hobby→die Hobbys - das Auto→die Autos Masculine and neuter words that end in –er often do not add anything to form the plural, especially words denoting people. - der Lehrer, — →die Lehrer - der Wischer, — →die Wischer - der Kugelschreiber, — →die Kugelschreiber - das Poster, — →die Poster - der Computer, — →die Computer A smaller percentage will simply have to be memorized. As always, the dictionary entry will show how to make the plural. - der Professor, –en→die Professoren - der Student, –en→die Studenten - das Buch, –¨er→die Bücher Note that the definite article of every German plural automatically becomes die, whether it is masculine, feminine, or neuter. - der Tisch BUT die Tische History of the English language: You may be thinking that it is unnatural to add anything besides an –s or –es to plurals, as we do in English. However, English has plenty of irregular plurals…and this used to be the rule instead of the exception. Here are a few that we still use today that have Germanic roots. English adds an “umlaut.” An umlaut is as a change in the vowel sound. German adds two dots above the vowel to show this. English does not; English writes the change as a different vowel. - mouse→mice - foot→feet - goose→geese - louse→lice - man→men - woman→women English adds no ending. - moose→moose - deer→deer - sheep→sheep English adds –en. - ox→oxen - child→children English changes final –f to –v + es. - wife→wives - roof→rooves Watch YourGermanTeacher’s vi