Nouns in German: Singular and Plural

The nouns in German are always capitalized. Nouns can be a being, a place, or a thing.

Gender of German Nouns

Rule 1: All German nouns have gender and can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. Each noun possesses an article indicating the gender:

Masculine:

Feminine:

Neutral:

It is often very hard to determine the noun's gender just by looking at it, so you have to learn a new noun along with its article (der, die, das).

Number of German Nouns

Rule 2: Most German nouns have a singular and a plural form. When using the plural form, it is no longer necessary to distinguish between "der", "die" and "das". It will always be die.

Forming Plural Nouns

Rule 3: Most words become plural by adding letters at the end of the word and/or with a change of vowel. It's best to learn a new noun along with its plural form.

Plural nouns ending with -n/-en

Rule 4: Most nouns form their plural by adding letters to the end of the word. These groups have the plural ending -n or -en:

Plural nouns ending with -e

Rule 5: These groups have the plural ending -e :

*Sometimes an umlaut (¨) can be added as seen above.

Plural nouns ending with -r/-er

Rule 6: Noun groups forming the plural with -r or -er mostly fulfill all of these conditions:

Plural nouns ending with -s

Rule 7: These groups have the plural ending -s:

Plural nouns without an ending

Rule 8: Some nouns do not change in the plural:

*Be careful. Sometimes an umlaut (¨) can also be added!

Nouns Without a Plural Form

Rule 9: Some nouns have no plural. They only exist in the singular form.

Either these nouns have a plural meaning in the singular:

Or these nouns are innumerable:

Nouns Without a Singular Form

Rule 10: Some nouns have no singular. They exist only in the plural form: