On plural
It's impossable to give all the rules for making plurals, but here are a few guidelines:- Words that end on a syllable that includes a 'toneless -e' (like in de), usually get an -s:
- de tafel - de tafels
- de vader - de vaders
- de haven - de havens
- Words that end on a vocal usually get an -s with an apostrophe (') to keep the sound 'long':
- de taxi - de taxi's
- de agenda - de agenda's
- de radio - de radio's
- Other words usually get -en:
- het boek (book) - de boeken
- de krant (paper) - de kranten
- de vrouw (women) - de vrouwen
- Watch out with the spelling of vocals, though: if there's a 'long', double vocal it usually becomes a single one, followed by a single consonant, if it's a 'short, single vocal, it usually stays single, but followed by a doubled consonant:
- de boot (boat) - de boten
- het bot (bone) - de botten
- de maan (moon) - de manen
- de man (man) - de mannen
- If there's an -f at the end, it usually becomes a -v unless the English version of the word has a '-ph' where the Dutch version has -f:
- de brief (letter) - de brieven
- de graaf (duke) - de graven
- de paragraaf (paragraph) - de paragrafen
- If there's an -s at the end, it often becomes a -z. There's no rule though, to tell for which words or sounds this happens, you just have to remember this for each word:
- de kaars (candle) - de kaarsen
- de laars (boot) - de laarzen
- het kruis (cross) - de kruisen
- het huis (house) - de huizen
- Unfortunately, besides all this, there are a lot of hard to remember exeptions:
- de dag (day) - de dagen
- het dak (roof) - de daken
- het glas (glas) - de glazen
- het bedrag (amount) - de bedragen
- het gat (hole) - de gaten
- het graf (grave) - de graven (compare to 'de graaf'...)
- het dal (valley) - de dalen
- het vat (barrel) - de vaten
- de het schip (ship) - de schepen
- de smid (blacksmith) - de smeden
- het lid (member) - de leden
- de stad (town) - de steden
- de oom (uncle)- de ooms
- de broer (brother) - de broers
- de musicus (musician) - de musici
- de timmerman (carpenter) - de timmerlieden or de timmerlui
(all professions on -man have -lieden or -lui for plural)
