How to Form Plurals in Dutch

In Dutch, you usually make plurals in three ways: -en, -s, or -'s. Most nouns take -en, but the final letters of the word decide which ending sounds natural.

When you build the plural, spelling can change to keep pronunciation clear. You will often see a doubled consonant, one vowel removed, or s changing to z.

Dutch Plurals Ending in -EN

Singular	Plural	Spelling note
de kat	de katten de kat -> de katten - the cat -> the cats	double consonant (short vowel)
de bus	de bussen de bus -> de bussen - the bus -> the buses	double consonant (short vowel)
de boot	de boten de boot -> de boten - the boat -> the boats	drop one vowel (long sound, now 2 syllables)
de roos	de rozen de roos -> de rozen - the rose -> the roses	s -> z before -en
de vrouw	de vrouwen de vrouw -> de vrouwen - the woman -> the women	no change needed

Dutch Plurals Ending in -S

For words ending in -el, -em, -en, -er, -e or -ie, Dutch often adds a simple -s:

Singular	Plural
de tafel	de tafels de tafel -> de tafels - the table -> the tables
de jongen	de jongens de jongen -> de jongens - the boy -> the boys
de dokter	de dokters de dokter -> de dokters - the doctor -> the doctors
het meisje	de meisjes het meisje -> de meisjes - the girl -> the girls
de garage	de garages de garage -> de garages - the garage -> the garages

Dutch Plurals Ending in -'S

With words ending in -a, -o, -u, -i or -y, Dutch uses apostrophe + s to keep reading and pronunciation clear:

Singular	Plural
de auto	de auto's de auto -> de auto's - the car -> the cars
de foto	de foto's de foto -> de foto's - the photo -> the photos
de taxi	de taxi's de taxi -> de taxi's - the taxi -> the taxis
de baby	de baby's de baby -> de baby's - the baby -> the babies

💡 Useful shortcut: plural nouns use de, even if singular is het. Example: het huis -> de huizen het huis -> de huizen - the house -> the houses.
💡 Some plurals are irregular, so learn them as fixed pairs: het kind -> de kinderen het kind -> de kinderen - the child -> the children, het ei -> de eieren het ei -> de eieren - the egg -> the eggs, de stad -> de steden de stad -> de steden - the city -> the cities.

How to Actually Pick -en or -s

English speakers default to one plural ending, "-s," for almost every noun, so the instinct is to hunt for a single Dutch equivalent. Dutch actually keeps two endings alive in everyday speech, -en and -s, and choosing between them has nothing to do with meaning — it depends on how the singular word already sounds. A Dutch speaker hears a word like "tafel" or "jongen" ending in an unstressed syllable and reaches for -s without thinking, while everything else falls back to -en by default.

As a beginner, start by guessing -en, and only switch to -s when the singular already ends in -el, -em, -en, -er, -e, or -ie — the pattern behind de tafel, de jongen, de dokter, and de garage. Words ending in -a, -o, -u, -i or -y break the pattern again and take -'s instead, like de auto -> de auto's. Once you add -en, also check the spelling: a short vowel usually doubles the final consonant, and a long vowel in an open syllable usually drops a letter.

Mistakes English Speakers Make

English plurals are almost always just the singular plus "-s," so it is tempting to bolt an ending onto a Dutch word without checking the article or the spelling rule. These are the four slips that come up most at A0–A1.

Lesson 5 Practice

Build plural accuracy with vocabulary from Lessons 1 to 10.