Indefinite Plurals
In Danish, just like in English, nouns change their form when there is more than one. In this lesson, we are looking at the indefinite plural (like "apples" or "cakes", without "the").
A very common word to use with plurals is mange (many).
| I have many apples. | Jeg har mange æbler. |
Nouns ending in -e: Add "-r"
If a singular noun already ends in the letter -e, you form the plural by simply adding an -r.
For example, en kage (a cake) becomes kager (cakes), and en plante (a plant) becomes planter (plants).
| The woman buys cakes. | Kvinden køber kager. |
| Do you have plants in the house? | Har du planter i huset? |
| The house has many rooms. | Huset har mange værelser. |
Nouns ending in a consonant: Add "-er"
If a singular noun ends in a consonant, the most common way to make it plural is by adding -er.
Let's look at en blomst (a flower) turning into blomster (flowers):
| The man finds a flower. | Manden finder en blomst. |
| She buys flowers in the store. | Hun køber blomster i butikken. |
| The family buys tomatoes and apples. | Familien køber tomater og æbler. |
Short nouns: Doubling the consonant
Sometimes, if a short noun ends in a single consonant, that final consonant is doubled before adding -er. This happens to keep the vowel sound short. For example, en bus (a bus) becomes busser (buses).
| I see many buses in the city. | Jeg ser mange busser i byen. |
