Zero-Ending Plurals
In Danish, many short, one-syllable neuter nouns (and compound words ending in one) are incredibly easy to make plural: they don't change at all!
For these nouns, the indefinite singular ("a word") and the indefinite plural ("two words") look exactly the same. We call these "zero-ending" plurals. You can find the base word by taking the definite singular noun and removing the -et ending.
So, et sprog (a language) simply becomes to sprog (two languages), and et ord (a word) becomes to ord (two words). Let's see this in action:
Even longer words follow this rule if their core root is a short neuter noun. For example, et spørgsmål (a question) stays exactly the same in the plural:
Tableware and Everyday Items
This zero-ending rule applies to a lot of common everyday objects, including items you might find around the dining table, like et glas (a glass), et krus (a mug), et lys (a candle), and et sugerør (a straw).
Because the noun itself doesn't change, you will often rely on numbers, context, or plural adjectives to know that the word is plural. For example, noticing the plural adjective rene (instead of the singular ren) tells you that we are talking about multiple items.
