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YOUR DUTCH WORKBOOK LESSON 6 / 18

How to Form Plurals in Dutch

One idea at a time. Read, listen, then make it yours.

The essentials

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

SingularPluralSpelling note
de katde katten Translatede kat -> de katten - the cat -> the catsdouble consonant (short vowel)
de busde bussen Translatede bus -> de bussen - the bus -> the busesdouble consonant (short vowel)
de bootde boten Translatede boot -> de boten - the boat -> the boatsdrop one vowel (long sound, now 2 syllables)
de roosde rozen Translatede roos -> de rozen - the rose -> the rosess -> z before -en
de vrouwde vrouwen Translatede vrouw -> de vrouwen - the woman -> the womenno change needed

Dutch Plurals Ending in -S

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

SingularPlural
de tafelde tafels Translatede tafel -> de tafels - the table -> the tables
de jongende jongens Translatede jongen -> de jongens - the boy -> the boys
de dokterde dokters Translatede dokter -> de dokters - the doctor -> the doctors
het meisjede meisjes Translatehet meisje -> de meisjes - the girl -> the girls
de garagede garages Translatede 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:

SingularPlural
de autode auto's Translatede auto -> de auto's - the car -> the cars
de fotode foto's Translatede foto -> de foto's - the photo -> the photos
de taxide taxi's Translatede taxi -> de taxi's - the taxi -> the taxis
de babyde baby's Translatede baby -> de baby's - the baby -> the babies
💡 Useful shortcut: plural nouns use de, even if singular is het. Example: het huis -> de huizen Translatehet huis -> de huizen - the house -> the houses.
💡 Some plurals are irregular, so learn them as fixed pairs: het kind -> de kinderen Translatehet kind -> de kinderen - the child -> the children, het ei -> de eieren Translatehet ei -> de eieren - the egg -> the eggs, de stad -> de steden Translatede 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.

Real-life note: Dutch listeners will understand a wrong plural without blinking, but the spelling matters far more in writing — a missing doubled letter or a dropped vowel is exactly the kind of slip that stands out on a form, an email, or a CV.
COMMON MISTAKES

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.

✗ het boeken ✓ de boeken

Every plural takes de, even for het-words: het boek → de boeken.

✗ mans ✓ mannen

A short vowel doubles the final consonant before -en: man → mannen — the same repair you see in kat → katten.

✗ boomen ✓ bomen

A long vowel in an open syllable drops one letter instead of doubling: boom → bomen, just like boot → boten.

✗ autoen ✓ auto's

Auto's is already correct — nouns ending in a, o, or u take -'s, not -en, so "autoen" is never right.

PRACTICE

Lesson 6 Practice

Build plural accuracy with vocabulary from Lessons 1 to 10.

Option 1: Choose The Correct Plural Noun

Pick the correct plural form for the sentence context.

Question 0/8 Score 0

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