Plurals with the Diaeresis

On the plurals overview page you learned the basic split: most Afrikaans nouns add -e or -s. This page handles a specific, very visible sub-case of the -e plurals — the ones that end up with a diaeresis (the two dots: ë, ï, ö, ü) or a circumflex (ê, û). Words like oog → oë (eye/eyes), knie → knieë (knee/knees) and see → seë (sea/seas) look intimidating because of the unusual spelling, and most courses dump them in a list of "irregulars" to be memorised. They are nothing of the kind. Every diaeresis here is mechanically predictable from one rule about vowels bumping into each other. Once you see the rule, you can spell these plurals correctly the first time you meet a word — no list required.

The one rule: dots mark a syllable break between vowels

Afrikaans uses several vowel digraphs — pairs of letters that stand for a single sound: oe (as in boer), ee (as in see), ie (as in bie), ui, eu, and so on. This creates a reading problem. If you add the plural -e to a stem that already ends in a vowel, the new -e lands right next to the stem's vowel, and a reader cannot tell whether the letters form a digraph (one sound) or two separate vowels (two syllables).

The diaeresis solves this. Placed on the second of two adjacent vowels, it tells the reader: "start a new syllable here — these vowels do not combine." That is its entire job. It changes nothing about the grammar; it is a pure reading aid, like the same mark in English naïve or Noël.

Pattern 1: vowel-final stems (the clean hiatus)

The simplest case: the singular already ends in a vowel, you add -e, and the two vowels need separating. No consonant is involved at all — just a hiatus to mark.

The pattern is consistent: the stem keeps its full vowel spelling, the plural -e attaches, and a diaeresis goes on that final -e to break the digraph. So see (one syllable) becomes seë (two: se-ë), and knie becomes knieë (two: knie-ë).

Pattern 2: g-deletion creates the hiatus (oog → oë)

This is the larger and more important pattern. Many nouns end in vowel + g. When you add -e, the g sits between two vowels and is deleted — exactly the alternation you meet with adjectives (hoog → hoë) and in the g and ng spelling rules. Once the g is gone, the stem vowel and the plural -e are touching, and the diaeresis appears to mark the join.

So the chain is: oog → drop the g → oo + e → mark the join → oë. The plural oë is two syllables (o-ë) where the singular oog is one. The dots are the visible trace of the deleted g.

The word reël (rule, or a line of text) is worth a separate look. Its diaeresis is already present in the singular — reël is spelt re-ël, two syllables, because the e and the second vowel never combined into a digraph. Its plural is the perfectly regular reëls (with -s, because it is a polysyllabic-feeling stem): the diaeresis simply carries over. There is no extra hiatus to create here; the dots were already doing their job in the singular.

Pattern 3: when the circumflex shows up instead (brug → brûe)

Closely related, but with a circumflex (the little hat: ê, û) rather than a diaeresis, is a small group where a deleted g leaves a single long vowel rather than two distinct vowels. The classic is brug → brûe (bridge/bridges): the g drops, and the u lengthens — marked with the circumflex to show the long vowel, not a syllable break.

The contrast in the table is the whole point. After g-deletion, you get a diaeresis when two distinct vowels are left touching (oë, two syllables), and a circumflex when the result is one lengthened vowel (brûe, rûe). Both come from the same g-deletion; the mark just records what kind of vowel survived. The circumflex plurals are a small, closed set — far fewer words than the diaeresis ones — so treat them as a recognise-it-when-you-see-it group. The everyday one to know is brûe.

The reën family: where it does NOT happen

It is just as useful to know where the diaeresis is not needed, so you do not over-apply it. reën (rain) is spelt with a diaeresis in the singular — re-ën, two syllables — but its plural is simply reëns (with -s): the existing diaeresis carries over and no new hiatus is created. You do not add a second pair of dots.

How English misleads you

English has no productive diaeresis — even naïve and coöperate are usually written without the dots now. So English speakers make two opposite errors. First, they omit the diaeresis entirely (writing oe, kniee, reels), which in Afrikaans is a spelling error, not a stylistic choice — oë without its dots would be read as the single vowel oe. Second, fishing for a way to keep the vowels apart, they sometimes invent a consonant to break the hiatus — writing oge or kniete — which is simply not the word. The diaeresis is the only tool Afrikaans uses for this; nothing is inserted.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• The diaeresis is a pure reading aid: it marks a syllable break between two vowels and signals nothing about meaning or irregularity.
• Vowel-final stems create a hiatus directly: see → seë, knie → knieë, idee → ideeë.
• g-deletion creates the hiatus indirectly: oog → oë, vlieg → vlieë — the dots are the trace of a dropped g.
• A deleted g that leaves one long vowel takes a circumflex instead: brug → brûe.
• A diaeresis already in the singular (reën → reëns, reël → reëls) simply carries over; never stack a second one.
• These spellings are derivable, not memorised — the same g-deletion engine that reshapes adjectives and the g and ng rules.