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Parts of speech - Woordsoorten
Plurals of nouns
In Dutch, the majority of plurals are formed by adding -en to the stem (or singular form): fiets - fietsen; krant - kranten. However, if a noun ends in -el, -em, -en or -er or in a vowel, the plural is formed by adding -s to the singular. In writing, an apostrophe has to precede the -s in the case of words ending in a, i, o, u or y.
| lepel - lepels |
spoon |
| bezem - bezems |
broom |
| laken - lakens |
sheet |
| beker - bekers |
beaker, cup |
| gemeente - gemeentes |
municipality |
| opa - opa's |
grandads |
A small number of nouns form their plural by adding –eren to the stem. The most common ones of these are:
| ei – eieren |
egg |
| kind – kinderen |
child |
When a >new noun enters the language or is borrowed from another language, its plural may be formed in a different way.
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