28.4 Like strong verbs (see 33 ) and noun gender (see 27 ), irregularities in noun declension
need to be learnt when the noun is first met, since there is no way of knowing just by
looking at the noun whether it is of weak or regular declension. The three key elements
to learn are a noun’s nominative singular, its genitive singular and its nominative
plural. These, along with the gender, will usually be given in any good dictionary:
e.g. Tisch, m., -es, -e indicates that the noun is masculine, that the genitive form is
des Tisches and that the plural is die Tische.
28.5 Adjectival declension
A large number of adjectives can serve as nouns when spelt with an initial capital letter.
They always take the appropriate adjective endings following the definite article and
the determiners (see 22 , 24 , 44 ), the indefinite article (see 22 , 45 ) or the adjective
without any preceding defining word (see 46 ):Sehen Sie den Alten in der Ecke?
Do you see the old man in the corner?Sie spricht mit einer der Kranken.
She’s talking to one of the (female) patients.Er wohnt bei einer Deutschen.
He lives with a German (woman).Arbeitslose haben in dieser Stadt wenig Chancen.
Unemployed people don’t have much of a chance in this town.Er ist Beamter geworden.
He’s become a civil servant.See also 10.5c (p. 15), 54.3 (p. 137) and 59.1c (p. 149).
28.6 Infinitives as nouns
The infinitive of almost any verb can be given an initial capital letter and turned into a
regular (i.e. strong) neuter noun:das Essen ‘food/meal’, das Lesen ‘reading’, das Rauchen ‘smoking’,
das Schwimmen ‘swimming’See also 54.4 (p. 138).
29 Plurals
29.1 There are several different ways to form noun plurals in German. It is very difficult to
predict plural endings with complete certainty and therefore, once again, learners are
strongly advised to learn the plural form when they first encounter the noun.
There are five clear types of plural ending, some of which are typical of certain genders
or suffixes. These are listed below:29.2 Plural in -n or -en
A very large number of nouns fall into this category, including:29
NOUNS