The pattern
A few common nouns have an irregular plural: one that does not follow the usual -en or -s rules. Learn the singular and plural as one pair.
- Vowel change: stad, steden (city); schip, schepen (ship); lid, leden (member). The short a or i becomes a long e.
- Extra -eren: kind, kinderen (child); ei, eieren (egg); lied, liederen (song).
- A one-off: koe, koeien (cow).
- Words ending in -heid get -heden: mogelijkheid, mogelijkheden (possibility).
- Some Latin loanwords (words borrowed from Latin) have two plurals: museum gives musea or museums, centrum gives centra or centrums.
- As with every plural, the article is de: het kind, de kinderen.
Examples
| Amsterdam en Rotterdam zijn grote steden. | Amsterdam and Rotterdam are big cities. |
| In de haven liggen twee schepen. | There are two ships in the harbour. |
| Sanne en Daan zijn leden van de tennisclub. | Sanne and Daan are members of the tennis club. |
| Fatima heeft drie kinderen. | Fatima has three children. |
| Ik heb in de supermarkt zes eieren gekocht. | I bought six eggs at the supermarket. |
| Naast het fietspad staan veel koeien. | There are lots of cows next to the cycle path. |
| Joris heeft twee mogelijkheden: de trein of de bus. | Joris has two options: the train or the bus. |
| Priya heeft dit weekend twee musea bezocht. | Priya visited two museums this weekend. |
| Den Haag heeft veel museums. | The Hague has lots of museums. |
Why it works this way
These are old words that people have used every day for centuries, and words used that often resist change. Over time, Dutch moved most nouns over to the regular plurals with _-en_ and -s, but the most frequent ones kept their old forms. English did the same: you say men and feet, not mans and foots.
The vowel change comes from an old sound shift: when a syllable was added, a short vowel often became long. Usually you only hear this. Dag has a short a, but dagen has a long one, just like bad, baden. In schip and lid the vowel also changed colour, so you see it in the spelling too. The lesson on open and closed syllables explains why dagen needs only one a.
The -eren words are double plurals. Long ago kinder already meant children, and later speakers added -en on top. Handy detail: the common -eren words are all het-words in the singular: het kind, het ei, het lied.
Remember: kinderen and children are twins. Both are an old plural with a second plural stuck on top: child, childer, children, and kind, kinder, kinderen.
The -heid group is the one real rule in this lesson: every countable -heid word gets -heden, such as gelegenheid, gelegenheden (occasion). Words like gezondheid (health) simply have no plural.
Latin already had the plural musea, and Dutch kept it next to the regular museums. Both are correct and you will hear both. The lesson on nouns with two plurals has more of these.
Watch out
خطأtwee stadden
صوابtwee steden
the vowel changes, and the d is not doubled
خطأdrie kinder
صوابdrie kinderen
Dutch adds -en to the old -er, unlike German
خطأveel koes
صوابveel koeien
no English-style -s here
خطأtwee mogelijkheiden
صوابtwee mogelijkheden
-heid always becomes -heden
خطأzes eien
صوابzes eieren
ei takes -eren, just like kind
Quick check
- Fill in the plural of stad: Utrecht en Leiden zijn mooie oude (...).
- Choose: Mijn buren hebben vier (kinds / kinderen / kinden).
- Fix the sentence: Er zijn veel mogelijkheiden.
- Fill in the plural of koe: Op de boerderij van Bas staan twintig (...).
اعرض الإجابات
- steden (vowel change, no doubled d)
- kinderen (kind takes -eren)
- Er zijn veel mogelijkheden. (-heid becomes -heden)
- koeien (a one-off to learn by heart)
Use it today
Next time you do your shopping or take the train, name what you see in the plural, out loud or in your head: eieren in the supermarket, koeien from the train window, kinderen on their bikes. Saying the pair, kind, kinderen, a few times a day is how these forms start to feel normal.