German · Chapter 5 · Lesson 8 · Grammar primer
Plurals: eight patterns
English adds -s. German changes the vowel, adds -e, -er, -en or -s, and the real fix is learning the plural with the noun.
The short version
Feminine nouns almost always take -en
German has eight plural patterns, but one rule does most of the work: a feminine noun takes -n or -en about nine times in ten. Die Frau becomes die Frauen, die Frage becomes die Fragen. The -s that English speakers reach for is the rarest pattern of all, kept mostly for loanwords like Auto and Hotel.
die Frau, die Frauen; die Schule, die Schulen
The dative plural puts an -n on the noun
In the dative plural the article becomes den and the noun itself adds -n, so die Kinder turns into mit den Kindern. It is the one case where the noun changes as well as the article. If the plural already ends in -n or -s, as Frauen and Autos do, nothing is added.
Ich spiele mit den Kindern.
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