Modern German Grammar: A Practical Guide, Second Edition

(Rick Simeone) #1

29.8 Other miscellaneous plural forms


(a) Greek and Latin derivations ending in -os, -us or -um usually take -en in the plural:

das Epos, die Epen ‘epics’
das Museum, die Museen ‘museums’
der Mythos, die Mythen ‘myths’
das Visum, die Visen ‘visas’

(b) Certain other nouns derived from Latin retain their Latin plural form:

das Tempus, die Tempora ‘tenses’
das Tempo, die Tempi ‘tempo’ (in music)
das Genus, die Genera ‘genuses/genders’
das Korpus, die Korpora ‘(linguistic) corpora’

(c) Nouns ending in -ma have plural in -men:

die Firma, die Firmen ‘firms’
das Thema, die Themen ‘topics’

29.9 Double plural forms


A number of nouns which are identical in form in the singular, but whose gender
depends on the meaning, have different plural forms (see 27.2 for these).

There are also a few nouns with two meanings whose singular form and gender are
identical but which have divergent plural forms:

die Bank, die Bänke ‘benches’ and die Banken ‘banks’
die Mutter, die Mütter ‘mothers’ and die Muttern ‘nuts’, i.e. for bolts
der Rat, die Räte ‘councils’ and die Ratschläge ‘pieces of advice’
der Stock, die Stöcke ‘sticks’ and die Stockwerke ‘storeys’
das Wort, die Wörter ‘individual words’ and die Worte ‘connected words’

29
Plurals
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