To turn a Norwegian noun plural, you change its ending, not by adding the all-purpose -s that English reaches for, but with a small family of suffixes — chiefly -er and, for the definite plural, -ene. The good news is that the default pattern covers the large majority of nouns. The catch — and it is a real one for English speakers — is a big group of short neuter nouns that look exactly the same in the singular and the plural. This page covers the regular system; genuinely irregular and umlaut plurals (like bok → bøker, mann → menn) live on their own page.
The four-form grid
Every Norwegian noun has four core forms, and you should learn nouns in this grid from day one, the way you learn a verb's principal parts:
| Indefinite | Definite | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | en bil (a car) | bilen (the car) |
| Plural | biler (cars) | bilene (the cars) |
This page deals with the bottom row — the two plural forms. (The definite singular, bilen, is covered on its own page.) The reason to keep the whole grid in your head is that the plural endings stack on top of the noun's stem, so knowing the stem cleanly is half the battle.
The default pattern: -er and -ene
The workhorse rule covers most masculine and feminine nouns, and plenty of neuters too: add -er for the indefinite plural and -ene for the definite plural.
Vi har to biler, men begge bilene står på verksted.
We have two cars, but both (of the) cars are at the garage.
Det bor tre jenter i den leiligheten.
Three girls live in that apartment.
Jentene i klassen vil spille fotball i friminuttet.
The girls in the class want to play football at recess.
Notice the join. When a noun already ends in an unstressed -e, you do not write a double e — you simply add -r (indefinite) or -ne (definite):
| Singular | Plural (indef.) | Plural (def.) | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| en bil | biler | bilene | car |
| ei/en jente | jenter | jentene | girl |
| en gate | gater | gatene | street |
| en time | timer | timene | hour / lesson |
So jente gives jenter (not "jenteer"), and gate gives gater (not "gateer"). The final -e of the stem is reused as the first vowel of the ending. This e-elision is the same logic that drives the definite singular (gate → gata, not "gatea"), so it is worth getting comfortable with early.
Hvor mange timer jobber du i uka?
How many hours do you work per week?
The neuter zero-plural — the big surprise
Here is the rule that no English speaker predicts: many one-syllable neuter nouns add NOTHING in the indefinite plural. One hus (house), two hus (houses). The singular and the plural are spelled and pronounced identically; only the article, the number, or the context tells you which you mean.
Det er mange hus i denne gata.
There are many houses on this street.
Vi så ett hus til salgs, men de andre husene var ikke ledige.
We saw one house for sale, but the other houses weren't available.
Hun spiste tre egg til frokost.
She ate three eggs for breakfast.
The definite plural, by contrast, does take an ending — usually -ene (husene, the houses) and for a handful of common neuters the special ending -a (see below). So the zero only bites in the indefinite plural:
| Singular | Plural (indef.) | Plural (def.) | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| et hus | hus | husene (or husa) | house |
| et egg | egg | eggene | egg |
| et år | år | årene | year |
| et barn | barn | barna | child |
Why does this happen? Historically these neuter monosyllables simply never picked up a plural ending in the indefinite — the form is a true survival, not a deletion. The practical consequence is what matters: when you see mange hus, flere år, noen egg, the bare noun is the plural. Do not "fix" it.
Not every neuter is zero, though — longer neuter nouns generally take regular -er: et eple → epler (apple/apples), et bilde → bilder (picture/pictures). The zero-plural is mainly a one-syllable neuter phenomenon, which is why hus, år, barn, egg, fjell (mountain), glass (glass) behave that way while eple and kontor (office → kontorer) do not.
Hun tok mange bilder av fjellene på turen.
She took many pictures of the mountains on the trip.
The special definite plural -a (barna, husa)
A set of neuter nouns — and barn (child) above all — take -a, not -ene, in the definite plural. For barn, the -a form (barna, "the children") is the standard, everyday choice; "barnene" is rare and stilted.
Barna leker ute i hagen mens vi lager middag.
The children are playing outside in the garden while we make dinner.
Kan du legge barna nå? Klokka er over åtte.
Can you put the kids to bed now? It's past eight.
For other one-syllable neuters the -a definite plural is an optional, more colloquial variant alongside -ene: you will hear both husa and husene (the houses), beina and beinene (the legs/bones). Both are correct Bokmål; -a sounds a touch more spoken and traditional, -ene a touch more neutral. The one place where -a is not optional but expected is barna.
Vi pusset opp husa langs hele gata.
We renovated the houses along the whole street. (colloquial -a plural)
A quick reference
| Type | Indef. plural | Def. plural | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most nouns | -er | -ene | bil → biler → bilene |
| Stem in -e | -r | -ne | jente → jenter → jentene |
| One-syllable neuter | (no ending) | -ene / -a | hus → hus → husene/husa |
| barn (special) | (no ending) | -a | barn → barn → barna |
Common Mistakes
Adding English -s. This is the most automatic transfer error there is. Norwegian has no plural -s; reaching for it marks you instantly as an English speaker.
❌ Vi har to bils.
Incorrect — there is no plural -s in Norwegian.
✅ Vi har to biler.
We have two cars.
Adding -er to a zero-plural neuter. Because hus looks singular, English speakers want to "make it plural" with an ending. But the indefinite plural of hus is just hus.
❌ Det er mange huser i gata.
Incorrect — 'huser' is not a word; one-syllable neuters take no indefinite-plural ending.
✅ Det er mange hus i gata.
There are many houses on the street.
Doubling the e at the join. When the stem ends in -e, do not write -eer or -eene.
❌ Det bor mange jenteer i blokka.
Incorrect — the stem -e is reused; do not double it.
✅ Det bor mange jenter i blokka.
Many girls live in the apartment block.
Using -er for the definite plural. Learners sometimes stop at -er and forget that "the cars" needs the longer -ene.
❌ Hvor er biler? (meaning 'where are the cars')
Incorrect — 'biler' is just 'cars'; 'the cars' is 'bilene'.
✅ Hvor er bilene?
Where are the cars?
Saying "barnene". The natural definite plural of barn is barna.
❌ Barnene sover allerede.
Awkward — 'barnene' is rare and stilted.
✅ Barna sover allerede.
The children are already asleep.
Key Takeaways
- Default: -er (indefinite plural), -ene (definite plural). Stems in -e just add -r / -ne.
- Many one-syllable neuter nouns have a zero indefinite plural (hus → hus) — the plural is invisible, so read the number word.
- The definite plural still takes an ending: -ene, or -a for barn and as a colloquial variant for other neuters (husa).
- There is no plural -s in Norwegian. Ever.
Now practice Norwegian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Irregular and Umlaut PluralsA2 — A closed set of very common Norwegian nouns change their stem vowel in the plural (mann → menn, bok → bøker, fot → føtter, natt → netter) — the same umlaut pattern English keeps in man/men and foot/feet, so you already know the shape.
- The Suffixed Definite ArticleA1 — In Norwegian, 'the' is not a separate word but an ending glued onto the noun — bil → bilen, hus → huset, jente → jenta — the single biggest structural surprise for English speakers.
- Nouns: OverviewA1 — A map of the Norwegian noun system for English speakers — grammatical gender, the four forms every noun has, and the radical fact that definiteness ('the') is marked by a glued-on suffix, not a separate word.