Formation of plurals

Along with each German noun, one has to learn its gender and its plural. When these two are known, the remaining cases can nearly always be inferred, except for masculine nouns with an -en plural, most – but not all – of which are subject to a special declension pattern called weak declension. By the following rules one can get a feeling which formations are frequent, infrequent, or impossible, but they cannot save the labour of learning at least the genders and the plurals of the words.

Most words of German origin end with the word stem, with a schwa ending (that is, -e, -el, -en, or -er; each with an unstressed -e- realised as schwa) or with one of a handful of other endings, such as -ung (f), -heit (f), -keit (f), -schaft (f), -in (f), -nis (n or f), -tum (n, seldom m), -sal (n or f), -lein (n), -chen (n, at the same time a schwa ending), -ling (m), or -ig (m). For words of all these shapes there are a handful of plural endings, typically -e, -n, -er or no ending. These formations are called German-style plural in this article; they will be discussed in the two sections following this one.

German words that do not fit in this pattern mostly get a plural ending -s, in particular words ending with full vowels -a, -i, -o, -u (but not -ai, -ei, -au, -äu, -eu, -ee, -ie), also acronyms and abbreviations. Low German loan words in High German can also have a plural -s ending; this Low German -s ending is also becoming more and more popular for words like Mädel (gal) or Kumpel (buddy) which have also a standard plural formation without -s.

Foreign words often have German-style plurals when they have been loaned into German for a longer time and when they can be fitted to the above shapes. There is no hard rule, and quite similar-looking words may have dissimilar plural forms. Thus the following observations can only give the trend:

• Words of Latin, Greek, or French origin which are stressed on the last syllable (stem or ending) and are ending with a consonant or with the f endings -ie or -ei have always German-style plurals.

• Foreign words with unstressed -e and -er endings will be treated like German words with such endings. For -e, this is not true for silent English -e (Single); it is often true for half-silent French -e (Garage f (other than in French), Soße = Sauce), but not always (Creme).

• Most feminine words of Italian or Spanish origin ending with -a replace it by -en in the plural, e.g. Firma, Liga, Arena, Pizza, Villa. Some of them have an alternate plural form ending with -as.

• Only relatively few Latin or Greek words, in particular terms of academic language, have their plural forms loaned from the original language, e.g. Papyrus (-i), Genus (-era), Minimum (-a), Antibiotikum (-a), Praktikum (-a), Visum (-a), Lexikon (-a), Lemma (-ata or -as), Schema (-ata). When talking about music, Italian terms mostly get their original plurals (Cello (-i), Tempo (-i)), in other contexts, usage is varying.

• Many other words with unstressed Latin or Greek endings build their plurals by replacing their endings with the German plural ending -en, e.g. Forum, Kriterium, Spektrum, Radius, Organismus, Virus, Mythos, Dogma, Drama, Thema. For n words with -um, this happens on a fairly regular basis (see the preceding item for a handful of exceptions) whereas for the other endings, this is only one of several possible formations. Some words have lost the Latin singular ending -ium in German (Indiz, Prinzip, Privileg) but do have the plural ending -ien. For other words as well, this is the most common plural ending when a Latin plural form with -ia has been loaned into German (Material, Reptil, Utensil).

• Foreign words not fitting under any of the items above, in particular words with a full vowel at the end (Gorilla, Sauna, Komitee, Dementi, Baby, Essay, Büro, Niveau, Känguru, Milieu, Menü), as well as most English loans except those with -er ending form their plural with -s, which can be regarded as the default case for words that do not quite fit into the German phonology.

A number of exceptional or remarkable plural forms are listed in Ralph Babel’s FAQL.

“German-style” plural forms

The formation of plurals called “German-style” in the last section consists in two changes to the word, of which none, one, or both take place:

• appending an ending -e, -n, or -er. The -n ending is directly attached to a schwa ending (Boten, Deichseln, Schwestern) or to other final -e (Seen, Drogerien), otherwise it becomes -en (Strahlen, Frauen). An -s or -n at the word end after a short vowel is doubled before appending an -e or -en ending (e.g. Busse, Hindernisse, Königinnen)

• change of the vowel of the stressed stem syllable to become an umlaut: -a- to -ä-, -o- to -ö-, -u- to -ü-, -au- to -äu-. The umlaut is only possible when the stem is either last syllable prior to appending the plural ending or when only a schwa ending follows.

Which of these two changes apply for a given word depends on its gender and its shape:

1. Words ending with the word stem or with a non-schwa ending mostly get an -e ending when masculine or neuter, and an -n ending when feminine.

2. A small number of frequent monosyllabic words of German origin get a different ending: -er when masculine or neuter, and -e when feminine.

3. Words with a schwa ending get no plural ending when masculine or neuter, and an extra -n ending when feminine.

4. In addition, masculine words can get an -n ending; most of them underlying weak declension as described in the next section.

5. A vowel -a-, -o-, -u-, -au- in the word stem changes to umlaut always in case 2 of this list, never with an -n ending, and mainly for masculine words in the remaining cases.

These rules are summarised in the following table (u stands for umlaut, w stands for weak declension). The green fields represent the combinations that adhere to the above rules. The red fields are exceptional combinations – the given examples are meant as more or less exhaustive. Not contained are plural formations which do not exactly follow the rules in this section; for instance, many foreign words losing their original ending when acquiring the plural ending -en behave like the words the group of exceptions marked k.

¹) These words have more than one declension, see section on polysemes.
²) Tenor (stressed on second syllable, high male voice) and General have also plurals without umlaut, with no difference in meaning.
³) -or refers to masculine words with that ending which denote a person or a technical or mathematical device performing some action referred to in the word, e.g. Autor, Professor, Kondensator, Quantor. These words have the stress always on the penultimate syllable; that is, in the singular before and in the plural on -or; they build the plural by appending -en (see also Direktor in the table of examples). The remaining words with -or (other stress, other meaning) have mostly a plural with -e. None of the words in both groups are subject to weak declension.

Weak noun declension

With the exception of Herz, all nouns subject to weak declension are masculine. Among the m nouns, the following are subject to weak declension:

1. all nouns ending with -e denoting persons or animals, e.g. Bote, Kunde, Däne, Franzose, Löwe, Rabe

2. many monosyllablic nouns of German origin denoting persons or animals, e.g. Mensch, Fürst, Held, Bär – but other m words meeting these criteria are not weakly declined, e.g. Mann, Freund, Wirt, Hund

3. a few nouns ending with -r denoting persons where the -r belongs to the word stem and is thus not an ending, e.g. Bauer, Nachbar (=Nah-Bauer), Bayer, Pommer, Ungar, but no words with the ending -er

4. all other nouns ending with -e (except Käse), e.g. Friede, Glaube, Gedanke, also Herz (n) and Fels

5. many nouns with endings from foreign languages, to wit:

   1. all nouns with one of the stressed endings -ant, -ist, -and, -end, -et, -graph, -graf, -soph, -lith, -path, -nom irrespective of whether they denote persons, animals, or anything else – but no nouns with one of the stressed endings -al, -ar, -eur, or with the ending -or which is stressed in the plural only.

   2. nouns with one of the stressed endings -at, -it, -ent when they denote persons or animals, e.g. Soldat, Bandit, Referent

   3. some other words with those endings, e.g. Automat, Satellit, Koeffizient, Quotient – but not for instance Apparat, Profit, Akzent, Kontinent.

In weak declension, the words take an -n ending not only in the plural but in all cases except m-N (Herz, being n, in all cases except n-NA). As explained before, the -n becomes -en except after a Schwa ending or other -e. The words of item 3, however, append always only -n, and so does Herr in the singular.

The words of item 4 in the list get an additional -s in the mn-G case: m-N Funke, m-G Funkens, m-DA and p-NGDA Funken. Note that this declension differs from a standard declension of Funken only in the m-N case; the declension with the -ens genitive is thus a mixture of the declensions of Funke and Funken which both exist and are synonyms. In fact, most of these words exist with two m-N forms with and without final -n. With Friede(n), Fels(en), Funke(n), Gedanke(n), Glaube(n), Name(n), Wille(n), the shorter form is the normal one but the longer one is also in use; with Gefalle(n), Haufe(n), Same(n), Schade(n), the shorter form is obsolescent or obsolete. A special case is Drache(n) where the shorter form conveys the original meaning “dragon” whereas the longer form is used for figurative meanings. With other words (e.g. Brunnen, Kuchen, Nutzen, Rücken), the ancient m-N forms without -n have entirely disappeared and are no longer considered correct.

As a recent change, there is a trend to use strong declension for some of these words in sloppy language, in the genitive case less so than in dative and accusative.

Remaining cases

Up to now, we have studied the formation of the p-N case for all words and of all cases for words underlying weak declension. The remaining cases for non-weak declension are:

• mn-G case where nearly always an -s or -es ending is appended as discussed below

• mn-D case where some words can but need not take an -e ending as discussed below

• p-D case where all words with German-style plural (that is, neither plural -s nor plural ending borrowed from another language) get an additional -n ending except when the p-N form ends already with -n

• all others, that is, mn-DA, f-GDA, and p-GA, where the declined forms always are the same as the nominative forms in the same class.

The usage of the optional -e ending for mn-D case and of the -es instead of the -s ending for mn-G case normally occurs only with words of German origin ending with a stressed root syllable. It is not possible with words with a schwa ending, with a diminutive ending -chen or -lein, with an unstressed foreign ending or with a full vowel other than a diphthong at the word end. In the remaining cases (foreign words, other words with unstressed last syllable, words ending with stressed diphthong at the word end), it is very uncommon but occurs here and there.

When a final [s] sound in the uninflected noun would render the genitive -s inaudible, that is, with words ending with -s, -ss, -ß, -z, -tz, -x, German words and foreign words stressed on the last syllable mandatorily get an -es ending (des Gases, des Rosses, des Kreuzes, des Schatzes, des Hindernisses, des Kolosses, des Kompromisses) whereas words with unstressed foreign ending get no genitive ending at all (des Status, des Mythos, des Index) with exceptions only when the word is no longer perceived as foreign (des Busses, des Atlasses, des Zirkusses or des Zirkus). For other words as well, facilitation of pronunciation is an incentive of using the longer form with -es; in particular with lax plosives after long vowel at the word end (des Siebes, des Rades, des Tages). and with word-final consonal clusters ending with -sch, -t, or -d (des Barsches, des Mastes, des Hemdes). It is, however, neither mandatory for these words nor unusual for other words (des Tals or des Tales, des Kinns or des Kinnes).

Where there is free choice between -s and -es genitive, usage of -es has a slight poetic or archaic touch. The always optional -e dative ending, however, is pronouncedly archaic; many speakers use it only in idioms, e.g. bei Lichte besehen ([seen] in the cold light of day), im Grunde (basically), zu Tage treten (outcrop), im rechtlichen Sinne (in the legal sense), in diesem Sinne (in this spirit).

Declension of polysemes

Polysemes, that is, words that have different but related meanings in different contexts, have sometimes developed different declensions for the different meanings. In particular the formation of the plural is occasionally dependent on the meaning.

There is one recurring pattern with several neuter words having a plural with -er in the normal context, and a plural with -e used only in elevated or poetic language for a special case: Lichter (all kinds of lights) – Lichte (candles or other small non-electric lamps); Gesichter (faces) – Gesichte (visions); Bänder (tapes, ties, ribbons) – Bande (emotional bonds); Tücher (cloths) – Tuche (fine textile fabrics); Länder (countries) – Lande (lands, realms). The distinction between Wörter (words, lexical items, dictionary entries) and Worte (words, expressions, sayings) follows the same pattern but there is nothing elevated or poetic about the usage of Worte. Note also the pairs Geister (spirits, ghosts) – Geiste (brandies, distilled liquids) where the word is masculine and Schilder (signboards, plates) – Schilde (shields) where the word is neuter in the first meaning and masculine in the second.

Here are some other examples of differently declined polysemes with their nominative and genitive singular and their nominative plural:

• die Mutter (mother), der Mutter, die Mütter
  die Mutter (screw nut), der Mutter, die Muttern

• der Dorn (thorn), des Dorns, die Dornen
  der Dorn (pin, bolt), des Dorns, die Dorne

• der Bauer (farmer), des Bauern, die Bauern
  der -bauer (builder, in composites), des -bauers, die -bauer
  der Bauer (bird cage), des Bauers, die Bauer

• der Fels or Felsen (individual rock), des Felsens, die Felsen
  der Fels (rock as material), des Felses, —

• der Drache (dragon), des Drachen, die Drachen
  der Drachen (kite, quarrelsome woman), des Drachens, die Drachen

• der Ort (place, location), des Ort(e)s, die Orte
  das/der Ort (technical edge, coalface, locus), des Ort(e)s, die Örter
  (second form used only in very special contexts)

• das Wasser, des Wassers, die Wasser (masses of water)
  das Wasser, des Wassers, die Wässer (kinds of potable water)
  but only das Abwasser (waste water), des Abwassers, die Abwässer

• das Regiment (reign), des Regiments, die Regimente
  das Regiment (regiment), des Regiments, die Regimenter

• der Typ (type), des Typs, die Typen
  der Typ (guy), des Typen, die Typen

Examples

The following list of examples begins with the declensions represented by the green and red field in the table of German-style plurals, and in the same sequence when the matrix is read column by column.