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Die Jungen und die Mädchen lachen oft.

Die Jungen und die Mädchen lachen oft.
The boys and the girls laugh often.
From Lesson 9:Plural nouns and the plural article (die)·German

Breakdown of Die Jungen und die Mädchen lachen oft.

und
and
lachen
to laugh
oft
often
der Junge
the boy
das Mädchen
the girl

Questions & Answers about Die Jungen und die Mädchen lachen oft.

Why do both Jungen and Mädchen use die for "the"?
In German, the plural article for "the" is always die, no matter what gender the noun has in its singular form. Even though it is der Junge (masculine) and das Mädchen (neuter) in the singular, they both use die when there is more than one.
Why doesn't the word Mädchen change its spelling to become plural?
Nouns that end in -chen never change their spelling in the plural. You can only tell it means "the girls" rather than "the girl" because it uses the plural article die instead of the singular article das.
How does der Junge change to become plural?
To make der Junge (the boy) plural, you just add an -n to the end, making it die Jungen. Many masculine nouns that end in -e form their plural this way.
Why do we use the verb lachen instead of lacht?
Because the subject is plural. "The boys and the girls" is a group, so we treat it as "they". In German, verbs for "they" usually end in -en, so we use the base form lachen.
The subject is very long. Does that change where the verb goes?
No, the rule stays the same! The verb lachen must be the second idea in the sentence. The entire phrase Die Jungen und die Mädchen counts as the first block of information, so the verb comes right after it.

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