Predict German Plurals | German with Laura

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(👆 UPDATED VERSION of 'English Grammar for German Learners')
This mini-course helps you see the principles & patterns that underline German grammar (including noun plurals) so that you can learn efficiently & effectively.
In this ‘German for beginners’ video, you’ll discover that German noun PLURALS are actually governed by some handy-dandy rules! It’s time to take the random out of German noun plurals and learn time-saving principles & patterns instead.
I’ll introduce you to a special plurals hierarchy flowchart that I created in order to take the mystery and frustration out of German noun plurals. Discover the rhyme & reason behind noun plurals and learn them better and faster.
The power of being an adult learner of German is that you can ANALYZE the German language, ANALYZE specifically the grammar -- which is where any adult should start!
In this video, you’ll learn 5 RULES for German noun plurals. Of course, exceptions exist (but even those can typically be neatly categorized), but if you can learn principles & patterns that work like a charm the majority of the time … why wouldn’t you do that?!
You’ll learn that which noun plural you need is impacted by one of these elements:
1. how the noun is spelled
2. how the nouns is pronounced
3. how many syllables the noun has
4. the gender of the noun
Did you read that last point? Yup. That’s right. Here is yet another reason why learning noun GENDER (previous video) is so crucial -- it might impact the plural form needed!
Get ready to learn just exactly how many plurals options there are anyway, plus how to accurately pick which one you need and when! Let’s go!
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*IMPORTANT NOTE**: around the 3 minute mark, I give 2 sets of examples of common nouns that take the 'no change' plural, but several of nouns I chose to highlight were poor examples because *after 'getting off the train' at 'train stop #1' (with my system that you'll learn in this video), these nouns are further shunted to short, easy exception lists (but I don't specify this in the video).
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Contact me for permission for commercial use (e.g. teaching).
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Firstly, 'Vater', 'Mutter', 'Bruder', and 'Boden' do indeed take the no-change plural ending, as I say --BUT they also belong on a list of 24 nouns that additionally take an umlaut in the plural (Väter, Mütter, Brüder, Böden).
Finally, all feminine nouns ending with -el and -er (there are none that end with -en) ALSO get off the train at train stop #1 and take the 'no change' ending as the first step ... but, then you learn (just not in this video!) that this particular body of nouns also has to add an 'n' (Gabel becomes Gabeln, Schüssel becomes Schüsseln).
So, sorry! My apologies for not using clear-cut examples and/or not clarifying the essential nuances of the examples I did use. But hopefully it all makes sense to you now. :-)

[@pedrocavalcante5822]

I'm a Brazilian student who loves your videos, especially those where you give tips. You are a real German teacher! Congratulations on your channel and sharing all your knowledge! 🇧🇷

[@ritac.g3314]

achei, finalmente depois de tanto tempo, eu achei... kkkkkkkk

[@pedrocavalcante5822]

@@ritac.g3314 Ela é ótima, queria ter dinheiro para comprar o curso dela.

[@caiodemaduro6408]

@@pedrocavalcante5822 também queria :(

[@baibai6273]

This is the clearest video explaining how to form a plural noun that I have ever watched. thank you!

[@ferrelrose5671]

This is a great video and system--it would overwhelm my high school beginners but has great appeal for more adult learners or precocious older teens. And while it is admittedly less common, there is a missing variant of the - ending. It overlooks the umlauted version as in "die Väter," "die Mütter," etc.

[@GermanwithLaura]

I do mention that 'no ending + umlaut' plural in the video description, FWIW. :-)

[@eldarkazimov600]

Many thanks for your lessons.

[@juanmagm]

la teacher es toda alegre!!

[@bilge2298]

This is amazing!

[@mufarochihambakwe4615]

Am loving this danke

[@ananyakarmakar9642]

Thanks 😊

[@riinanurmela8069]

Danke schön!!

[@rocknroll9918]

Thanks for this video Laura. Could you please help me understand how plural of apple will fits into this “train”? I would’ve thought Stop 4 but the plural of Apfel is Äpfel. Per the rule on Stop 4, the umlaut should’ve come on “e” but it is instead on “A”. Please can you tell what I am missing here?

[@kouroshsh2441]

Hi Laura. first of all I would like to thank very much for your videos and tremendous techniques that you own to teach. As I am study my Master in Germany and I would love to learn German language. I have found your lesson very useful and effective. There are thousand of video tutorial but for you is defiantly the one that people must appreciate it. I had struggle learning Germen but you made it easy for me. Gold bless you and wish you the best : )

[@GermanwithLaura]

Thank you for the kind words. I'm so glad that these videos have been helpful.

[@tawfikseba5934]

Thanks for the channel and the videos, but I can't find a presentation of Laura.

[@miaunmccloud7911]

Thank you for this! It was much need! Your lessons are always in depth yet, to the point. And I always come out with a better understanding .

[@MarsOhr]

There are 2 sorts of "Mutter", both feminine nouns. One is mother (pl. Mütter), and the other is nut (for a screw) (pl. Muttern).

[@kiowhatta1]

Hallo Laura! I am a new student and very much enjoy your videos. I have studied at University, tried tapes, tutors, meet-up groups, and of course apps, but you are right about getting stuck when it comes to grammar. I am a little embarrassed to admit I have been trying so hard for nearly 8 years now and am still only barely an A2! I sincerely hope you don't mind me saying that I think you are the Nigella Lawson of Language teachers and Deinen Mann ist sehr Glücklich! I am looking forward to improving my grammar with your course and Danke für Ihre Zeit.

[@GermanwithLaura]

Glad you found me! You're not alone in spinning your wheels --even for a long time-- because of hangups with grammar. Don't despair --it can get better from here! :-)

[@kiowhatta1]

@@GermanwithLaura Thank you so much I feel fortunate to have found your course at this point in my journey. Prost aus Australien!

[@unkownoflife5959]

Just wondering, how do you know the word ball is masculine? If the plural ending is not known then how can we assign it a masculine sentence then?

[@abdulkarimsaeed3200]

The train makes the travel so easy... Hope not to miss a station ... Thanks teacher.

[@victorakandu9419]

I dropped off the train right at station 1....😂😂😂

[@Hockey567899]

same

[@rocknroll9918]

Thanks for this video Laura. Please could you explain the logic behind adding umlaut on the “a” in Apfel (plural). If I understand correctly, the plural of Apfel will be driven by rules on “Stop 1” but that doesn’t say anything about umlaut. Thank you in advance.

[@GermanwithLaura]

It wasn't a good example for me to use because it's one of a handful of exceptions. There's more info in the video description! :-)

[@mostafaeltriki]

Love the video made it way easier but I have a question, what about die wurst?

[@GermanwithLaura]

Die Wurst -> Die Würste Unfortunately, this is one exception that would just need to be learned outright. There isn't a way that you would be able to correctly predict this plural form.

[@johanna61]

Talent isn't an English loanword at all. It derives from the Latin word 'talentum'. There is also a rule in German saying that every neutral noun ending in -ent (which mostly are Latin loanwords) has a plural form ending in -e. Examples include (das Instrument - die Instrumente, das Firmament - die Firmamente, das Parlament - die Parlamente, das Dokument - die Dokumente, das Argument - die Argumente). All of these words are present in the English language as well, but only because they have a common source language - Latin. 🙂

[@GermanwithLaura]

I can understand where you're coming from here. I think we could all agree that all European languages have some roots in Latin or Greek! But the Latin word is 'talentum' not 'talent.' English has taken that root word and created it's own version of it. That English version is what the German language has borrowed. That's why we would consider Talent an English loanword. Thankfully, the -ent nouns will be able to work within the system I've presented to end up with the default -e plural, as you said. :-)

[@johanna61]

​@@GermanwithLaura Thanks so much for your reply. Could you tell me the source material you are referring to here? As far as I know (and was taught at a faculty of linguistics) , both German and English are Germanic languages and therefore simply have similar patterns when incorporating Latin words. There are also the examples of Information or Konzentration, which according to the dictionary I looked them up in, were taken directly from Latin. Sorry for the lengthy comment :)

[@johanna61]

For fairness reasons: My source material is Wolfgang Pfeifer's Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, which normally is quite good at including the complete history of a word.

[@Jimmie567]

What is the discription topic below, Laura,,do you mean the subscribe

[@victorakandu9419]

Vous savez toutes les langues !

[@jorgesanchez3403]

Question: Which one is the correct flowchart? The one in the video or on your website? 🤯

[@GermanwithLaura]

The version in this video is more recent than the one on my website; however, I've recently made some additional tweaks to the Plurals Hierarchy that will be covered in the 'German Foundations 2' course I'm currently recording (and also in 'German Foundations 1' when I re-record it next year).

[@jorgesanchez3403]

@@GermanwithLaura I really can't thank you enough for improving my German! 🤩🇩🇪 By the way, what were the resources on German plurals written in 1914 and 1882 that you'd found? 😯

[@GeorgFriedrich66]

3:05 „Gabel“ actually uses the plural ending ‚-n‘.

[@GermanwithLaura]

Yes! I believe I have this point addressed in my video description, but I'll double-check.

[@kellymcbright5456]

Just like "Schüssel". There are apparently more faults than rights in her rules and i doubt she knows what shes talking about.

[@asoueid8491]

This is helpful, but man, I'm glad I studied French instead of German. Even though I understand case structure from studying Latin, the complexity of plurals in German is really discouraging me. Plurals are so much easier in French. I knew a third gender and 4 cases (French doesn't use cases) would mean a lot more memorization would be involved, but the fact that even plurals are this complicated . . . Oof, it's a lot to take in. Thanks for trying to simplify the rules. Now I have to decide if I want to keep studying a language this complex to prepare for 3 days in Munich this summer. 😂 I'll keep practicing my Duolingo German, but I hope I can find Germans who speak English or French there. 😅

[@GermanwithLaura]

It's true, there is a lot to take in. :) If you decide to keep with it, Laura has a lot of content to help! - Nicole, GwL Team

[@rossymann167]

So nice, but for sharp brains some how I don't know if it's just that German is just hard

[@GermanwithLaura]

German is objectively more complex than English, but you can still do this!

[@sissyvogg8289]

Es heißt auch: die Schwestern, die Gabeln und die Schüsseln im Plural, aber z.B. die Schlüssel (=keys)

[@GermanwithLaura]

Ich weiß. ;-) Sie waren schlechte Beispiele zu verwenden. Ich habe aber eine weitere Erklärung im Video-Beschreibung geschrieben. Danke für den Kommentar!

[@yigitcanbaysal824]

Hallo Laura I wonder something. My mom and my father are retired. And If I wanted to say that in German, I am having trouble. Because we use 'Rentner' for men, 'Rentnerin' for women. I can't say ' Sie sind Rentner. ' oder ' Sie sind Rentnerin. ' Because their gender is different :) So what can I say? Maybe I must say separately like /Mein Vater is Rentner\ und / Mein Mutter ist Rentnerin.\ I would be grateful if you could clear up my confusion. Tschüss!

[@DasSalzbitte]

When you talk to some about your parents, you can say: Mein Vater ist Rentner. Meine Mutter ist Rentnerin. Mein Vater ist in Rente (gegangen). Meine Mutter ist in Rente (gegangen). When you talk about them not separated, you can say: Sie/Meine Eltern sind Rentner. Sie/Meine Eltern sind in Rente (gegangen). Greetings from Austria. We don't use the word "Rentner". We say "Pensionist".

[@yigitcanbaysal824]

@@DasSalzbitte Hmm got that. I want to practice writing in German if you don't mind. Grüß Gott. Wohnst du in Wien oder?

[@chrismulhern82]

This is so complicated- my train crashed before it left the station.😕

[@GermanwithLaura]

Sorry my system didn't work for you! I, of course, think it's much simpler than the conventional way to learn plurals, but --ultimately-- whatever works for you is great. Jedem seiner (to each his own)! :-) I hope you continue learning this marvelous language.

[@candoga]

I guess it's easier to memorize the words after watching this video 😅

[@GermanwithLaura]

Ha! I'm sorry for any confusion. :-P I have continued working to create the best charts possible for my students and this chart is one that I have updated in my paid courses. I'd love to have you get started with my free mini-course to see if it might be right for you! Click here -> germanwithlaura.com/unlocking-german-grammar/

[@candoga]

@@GermanwithLaura No no it's perfectly well explained. I'm just so fresh to the language so it might take some time to really understand the tips you give here 😃 and ı already started to follow your channel! I believe that I will learn quite a lot of things from you 🤗

[@amirhashemi1149]

it would more better if you geve more example

[@kellymcbright5456]

Nice ideas. Just the problem: they are wrong.

[@GermanwithLaura]

It could be that any 'mistakes' are exceptions that my system accounts for (though not necessarily in this video); in any case, I'd be interested in hearing about what problems you're seeing.

[@kellymcbright5456]

@@GermanwithLaura It is very simple to denounce contradictions to a theory as "exception". But if one comes up with a new idea, it would up to the scientist with the new idea to prove that one has a rule. That would mean you have to count the cases for and against your theory.

[@geetanarayanan5138]

Why is Wir habt heute keine Pläne incorrect in German?

[@GermanwithLaura]

The issue with this is the conjugation of the verb 'haben'. In order to use 'habt', it would need to be 'ihr habt....' If you are using 'wir' it would be 'haben'. You can read more about it here -> germanwithlaura.com/haben-conjugation/

[@michaelvanbeelen4875]

father and mother are exceptions and only take the Umlaut in plural! Why didn’t you mention this ??

[@GermanwithLaura]

A fair question. :-) Ideally, I should have chosen other examples that don't get into exception territory (there are only 24 er / el / en nouns that take an umlaut like 'Vater' and 'Mutter', but --of course!-- many of them are very common nouns). However, I believe I appropriately addressed the situation in the video's description (I'll go double-check!).

[@Carmex427]

I'm still confused on the train

[@GermanwithLaura]

I'm sorry you're still feeling confused. It is definitely not the easiest topic to digest. Sometimes it actually works best to move on to the next subject matter. You'll get to see plurals in action, and you can come back to them a little later and that might make all the difference.

[@rizacramson9416]

Am confused after boarding the train

[@GermanwithLaura]

I'm sorry about that! It is a hefty topic to be sure. I have actually made some updates to this chart in my paid courses that may help clear up your confusion. I'd love to get you started with my free mini-course here -> germanwithlaura.com/unlocking-german-grammar/

[@deborahsilver6331]

There are far too many exceptions to these rules that Laura is teaching, that her rules become unusable and irrelevant. I would check other books before you buy any of her courses.

[@GermanwithLaura]

Hi Deborah. I'm sorry to hear that you're feeling this way. What I teach is correct and it is the rule. But, yes, there are definitely exceptions. I intentionally don't include them in my YT videos or even in my paid course German Foundations in order to not overwhelm students (much better to have the rules established first). Using just my basic plurals hierarchy flowchart would cover an estimated 60% of nouns (especially those with endings you learn in German Foundations). There are then specific lists of categorized exceptions for er / el / en nouns (which include many very common nouns) and 3 groups of 'weak' nouns that get off at Train Stop #2 (and especially the 'male persons' that get off there are *further* subcategorized because there really are a lot of exceptions, though they at least fall under subheadings AND it's still better than trying to memorize every noun plural as just pure random information). There are some monosyllable exceptions too (monosyllables being the hardest group of nouns to learn!), but, again, it's recommendable to still approach these exceptions in a particular fashion that still helps eliminate much of the 'random'. Once one learns it alllll together, we're pretty darn close to a 100% prediction rate for plurals, and with as much 'random' removed as possible. I consider that a win! I get into a goodly number of the exceptions in my 'Vocabulary Builder Beta' course and I'll be systematically covering exceptions (e.g. to noun gender rules and noun plural rules, plus getting into the full list of German noun groups to learn AND the smartest way to learn German monosyllables, which qualify as exceptions of sorts since they have no endings for us to work with and many don't fall under a group either) in the 'German Foundations 2' course that I'm currently recording (all the grammar topics from A1-C1 and then some will then be covered between GF1 and GF2). I think there are good reasons to feel very confident about the value of what you learned with me, so I hope I've satisfactorily addressed your concerns. If not, whether here on YT or our our course platform, I welcome you to please tell me specifically the rules that you're having trouble with because they seem irrelevant or useless; I'll be happy to further explain!

[@sissyvogg8289]

Wenn ich den Bezug richtig verstehe, sagst Du "Vater", "Mutter", "Bruder" und "Boden" bilde den Plural ohne Änderung. Da muss ich Dir leider widersprechen. Der Plural lautet: Väter, Mütter, Brüder und Böden. Generell finde ich Deine Videos aber großartig. Mark Twain hätte unbedingt Deine Videos ansehen müssen.

[@GermanwithLaura]

Vielen Dank für Ihren Kommentar! Ich verstehe, was Sie sagen, aber der Grund, warum ich sage, dass diese Substantive keine Änderung in ihrer Pluralform annehmen, ist, dass am Ende des Wortes nichts hinzugefügt wird. Vielmehr drücke ich aus, dass diese Substantive auf einer Liste von Ausnahmen gehören, die keine Änderung an der Endung erhalten, ABER einen Umlaut erhalten. Macht das Sinn? Ich erwähne dies auch in der Videobeschreibung.

[@deutsch44]

bro, why to complicate the things up, it's common sense that blue is masculine while pink (red could be used in this case) is feminine. Switching them just messes everything, is this because of some feminist thing?? damn...

[@deutsch44]

By the way, the method and your content are good. But specifically this, was a big slip.

[@GermanwithLaura]

At the beginning of German Foundations 1, Laura explains her rationale behind the colors. In summary, she was going for the energy of the color, instead of using the classic blue/pink. Colors are tricky because girls can like blue and boys can like pink, but red made her think of more masculine topics (progress, forward motion, intensity) and blue for feminine (calm, peaceful like an ocean). Feel free to use any colors you would like as you practice on your own! Nicole GwL Team

[@elvinmarvel7643]

This video is a mess.