German plurals

English adds -s and moves on. German does not. The plural is part of the word, like the article. The dictionary page for a noun shows the plural we teach in the course. Learn that pair.

Patterns you will meet immediately:

-e, sometimes with umlaut: der Tisch, die Tische.
-er, often with umlaut: das Buch, die Bücher.
-n or -en: die Lampe, die Lampen.
-s: das Auto, die Autos.
No new ending, sometimes with umlaut: der Apfel, die Äpfel.

There is no honest shortcut that predicts every noun. Endings such as -ung tell you the singular article more reliably than they tell you the plural. Use the ending hubs for the article, and the word page for the plural.

Open the plural lesson · Article dictionary · Nouns ending in -ung

Verb position · Cases · Two-way prepositions · Separable verbs

Author: Fahrplan Deutsch. Last reviewed 2026-10-27. reviewed: false. A native-speaker review is still open.

Questions

Is the plural always -s?

No. -s is one pattern, common on some short and borrowed words. Other nouns take -e, -er, -n or -en, or no ending, and some add an umlaut.

Does the article change in the plural?

The plural article is die for every gender. der Tisch and die Tische. The gender is still stored on the singular.