Die Endung in der Mehrzahl klingt hier anders als in der Einzahl.

In grammar, die Endung means an ending: the final letter or sound added to a word form.

In this sentence, die Endung refers to the grammatical ending of a word, especially when comparing the plural form with the singular form.

For example, in English, the -s in cats is an ending. In German, endings can also change depending on number, case, gender, and so on.

They are grammatical terms:

• die Mehrzahl = plural
• die Einzahl = singular

So:

• in der Mehrzahl = in the plural
• in der Einzahl = in the singular

You will also often see:

• der Plural
• der Singular

These mean the same thing and are very common too.

Because the preposition in is being used here in a location/state sense, not a direction sense, so it takes the dative case.

Both nouns are feminine:

• die Mehrzahl
• die Einzahl

The feminine dative singular article is der, so:

• in der Mehrzahl
• in der Einzahl

Compare:

• nominative: die Mehrzahl
• dative: der Mehrzahl

Because the subject of the sentence is Die Endung.

So the structure is:

• Die Endung = the subject
• klingt = the verb

Since Endung is singular, the verb is singular too:

• Die Endung klingt ...

Even though Mehrzahl and Einzahl also appear in the sentence, they are not the subject.

Klingt comes from klingen, which means to sound.

So this sentence is about pronunciation, not spelling.

It means that the ending is pronounced differently in the plural than in the singular.

A word can:

• be spelled differently
• sound differently
• or both

Here, klingt anders specifically focuses on how it sounds.

Hier literally means here, but in grammar explanations it often means something like:

• in this case
• here in this example
• at this point

So it does not necessarily mean a physical place. It refers to the grammatical situation being discussed.

You can understand it as: The ending in the plural sounds different here/in this case than in the singular.

Anders als is the standard way to say different from in this kind of comparison.

So:

• anders als in der Einzahl = different from in the singular

This is a very common pattern:

• Das ist anders als vorher. = That is different from before.
• Sie spricht anders als ihre Schwester. = She speaks differently from her sister.

English speakers sometimes expect a structure closer to different than or different from, but German normally uses anders als.

Yes. You could also say:

Die Endung im Plural klingt hier anders als im Singular.

That means essentially the same thing.

Both versions are correct:

• in der Mehrzahl / in der Einzahl
• im Plural / im Singular

The Plural/Singular version is often a little more common in modern grammar explanations, but Mehrzahl/Einzahl is also completely normal.

This is normal German word order.

The basic structure is:

• Die Endung = subject
• in der Mehrzahl = prepositional phrase
• klingt = verb
• hier anders als in der Einzahl = more information

German main clauses usually place the conjugated verb in second position. Here, the whole subject phrase comes first, and klingt is the second element:

Die Endung in der Mehrzahl | klingt | hier anders als in der Einzahl.

You could also rearrange parts for emphasis, for example:

In der Mehrzahl klingt die Endung hier anders als in der Einzahl.

That is also grammatical.

It is most naturally understood as describing die Endung in context: the ending in the plural form.

So the idea is:

• the ending as it appears in the plural
• sounds different from
• the ending as it appears in the singular

In practice, the sentence communicates a comparison between the plural ending and the singular ending.

German often avoids repeating words when the meaning is already clear.

A fuller version might be something like:

Die Endung in der Mehrzahl klingt hier anders als die Endung in der Einzahl.

But that sounds more repetitive. Native speakers usually shorten it to:

Die Endung in der Mehrzahl klingt hier anders als in der Einzahl.

The missing idea is understood automatically.

In this sentence, anders comes after the verb because it is part of the description:

• klingt anders = sounds different

That is the normal placement.

So:

• Die Endung klingt anders. = correct

If you move things around, you need to keep normal German sentence structure in mind, but klingt anders is the standard combination.

A useful pattern is:

X in the plural sounds different from in the singular.

In German:

X in der Mehrzahl klingt anders als in der Einzahl.

You can reuse it with other nouns:

• Der Stamm in der Mehrzahl klingt anders als in der Einzahl.
• Die Form im Plural ist anders als im Singular.

So a good memory aid is:

• klingt = sounds
• anders als = differently from / different from
• in der Mehrzahl / in der Einzahl = in the plural / in the singular