Der dümmste Bauer erntet die größten Kartoffeln

The dumbest farmer harvests the biggest potatoes.

(translation: JUST DO IT!

Interesting how one thing leads to another. Example. Yesterday I worked on my first vocabulary list and, for the vegetables that had a plural form, I added the ending in parentheses after the word (Got this from the dictionary). I’ve never really understood how to do the plural form of nouns. It seems as if there’s a million different rules to follow. So, today I’ve decided once and for all to get to the bottom of how to pluralize a German noun. It isn’t quite a bottomless pit, but it’s darn close.

After an online search of a bunch of different sites, I’ve narrowed down the different plural endings to 5. I may have missed something, but it appears that these rules cover just about everything. So, here goes.

1. I’m calling this the “Vegetable Rule of Noun Plurals”.

Looking at yesterday’s list, I found that Bohne, Gemüse, Karotte und Beete form their plural by adding an n.  Is this true for all nouns ending in e??? The answer seems to be “pretty much”.

Most of these nouns are feminine. Check. My veggies are all feminine. So, I guess I can be pretty safe following my Vegetable Rule when I encounter a noun ending in e. I’ll test this out as I go along. 

2. Rule #2: The extension of V.R. #1 involves nouns that already end in en. You leave them alone. They have the same form for singular and plural. This also applies to nouns ending in el or en.

One example of this is a word I used in my first post: Madchen:

das Madchen (singular);

die Mädchen (plural).

This rule also applies to nouns that end in er. An example is das Kloster. It becomes die Klöster - convent or monastery. (I just randomly opened my dictionary and looked for the first noun that ended in er.  There is a slight change in the plural, however, of these two words, and it involves the addition of an umlaut. More on this Saturday. I’m really liking how this grammar trek is unfolding. Like consecutive bus stops on a main route, or something. 

3. Adding er. This one seems a bit trickier.

Examples include:

der Mann (singular); die Männer (plural) –  mit umlaut

das Buch (singular); die Bücher (plural) - mit umlaut

das Kind (singular); die Kinder (plural) – ohne umlaut

My online research tells me that most of the words that follow this rule are neuter; a few are masculine (that would explain Der Mann). So far all I can see is that each of these words ends in a consonant.

Also, on a side note, why doesn’t the word umlaut have an umlaut? 

4. Adding an e. Most of these are masculine:

Der Stern (singular); die Sterne (plural)

Der Hund (singular); die Hunde (plural)

These also end in a consonant. Need to follow up on this.

ABER

Die Gans (singular); die Gänse (plural) - hmmm. I see an umlaut again.

Das Pferd (singular); die Pferde (plural) – no umlaut.

Still ending in a consonant.

5. Adding an s. Most of these are foreign words that have been adopted by German or abbreviations.

Das Radio (singular); die Radios (plural)

Die CD (singular); die CDs (plural)

I guess if you’re feeling lucky, you can play the percentages. More online research led me to a site called germanwithlaura.com. She has a good overview and a little chart –

The 80% Rule: 

80% of masculine and 75 % of neuter nouns add e  

90% of feminine nouns add en

Well, that’s a start. I’m going to need to review this for sure.

WRITING

Here are my 10 Vegetable sentences. They follow the basic rule of German sentence order: 

In a main clause, the verb is ALWAYS the second word in the sentence. Subject goes first. 

Mein Gemüsegarten ist in der Nähe der Scheune. (compound noun)

Die Hasen fressen meinen Mais. (Die Leute essen; die Tiere fressen)

Die Tassenratte fressen meine grünen Bohnen.

Gestern habe ich etwas Spinat geerntet.

Die roten Beeten befinden sich rechts von den Karotten.

Mein Mann hasst Brokkoli.

Der Blumenkohl und der Kohl gehören zur selben Familie.

Die Paprika sind grün und rot.

OK. I cheated a bit, but I think I’m going to allow combining vocab words in my sentences. So, the new rule is to use them all, either independently or in a paragraph. I’m not 100% sure they are grammatically correct, but I’m going to leave them for now. As I learn more I will come back and check on them. Now, to read them aloud and I’m done! 

Bis bald!