One Article but Many Plurals

Deutsche Oper Berlin

For all who are confused and haunted by der, die, das – there is good news. There is no indefinite and only one definite article in plural. In plural, all nouns take die.

die Frauen – die Männer – die Kinder
die Opern – die Arien – die Lieder

There is no consistent pattern in how nouns are spelled in plural. The German language has nine ways to change a singular noun into a plural (and many exceptions), for example adding different letters to the ending, creating umlauts out of vowels or leave it without changing it at all. The word Sänger can mean either singer or singers depending on context.

Der Sänger is the singular form for male singer. That die Sänger is plural we only recognize because of the article die. One might assume that die Sänger referred to a female singer, but that would be die Sängerin since we mark most terms for a female person with an -in-ending.

It helps to look at the verb and how it is conjugated.

Die Sänger proben das Lied.
Der Sänger probt das Lied.
Die Sängerin probt die Arie.
Die Sängerinnen proben die Arie.
There are at least nine common forms of plural formation (declension).

No change > der Walzer, die Walzer (waltz)
–e > der Sitz, die Sitze (seat)
–en > die Uhr, die Uhren (watch)
–er > das Bild, die Bilder (image)
–n > die Flöte, die Flöten (flute)
–s > der Star, die Stars
Umlaut > die Tochter, die Töchter (daughter)
Umlaut, -e > der Vorhang, die Vorhänge
Umlaut, -er> das Land, die Länder

Some nouns that stem from latin or other languages have a peculiar way to decline. Das Visum is singular, but die Visa plural (as well as the colloquial Visen). In plural, we say die Celli or die Cellos for one das Cello. For die Diva, we say die Diven or die Divas when there is more than one. Of course, there is never more then one, at least not in the same room.

We do not decline English words like Party or Story the way we do in the English language (parties, stories). In German we just add an –s as with many other foreign words.

die Partys, die Storys

Some words we use in English as plural like police and spectacles are singular in German.

die Polizei, die Brille

There is no plural for Polizei. If we have more that one Brille, we decline it to die Brillen.

Next up-date: Sunday, July 1^st.

Ach, welch’ schlechtes “ch” ich mach’

 

A while ago, I received an e-mail from a former student and singer who has now a Festvertrag at a German opera house, inquiring about the “ch” sound. Besides the combination chs which creates an x-sound like in wachsen (to grow) or Lachs (salmon) or the word for lynx, Luchs (not spelled Lux as I learned last night), there are two ch-sounds that interests us most:

– the one we generate in the back of the throat as if we want to get rid of a crumb, like in ach or in der Hölle Rache kocht;

– the one we generate behind our front teeth, not quite a sch like in “shoe”, more like the sound New Yorkers create when they roll their eyes and say the word “huge” to emphasize something really, really, really huge. We find it in ich, nicht or München.

The singer asked if there is “a rule allowing us to know which sound to make” when looking at a text.

Yes, there are several rules.

They have to do with vowels, umlauts and diphthongs preceding the ch.

We pronounce ch like in ach…

– when it is preceded by the vowels a, o and u like in Rache, Loch (hole) and suchen,

– when it is preceded by the diphthong au like in Bauch or rauchen (god forbit),

– never, when it is at the beginning of the word.

We pronounce ch like in ich…

– often when it is at the beginning of the word, like in China and Chemie, but not always. The ch of words like Chor or Cherub have a k-sound. We pronounce words of French origin like charmant or chic with the full sch-sound.

– when it is preceded by the vowels e and i like in Pech (bad luck) and Michael,

– when it is preceded by the diphthongs eu and ei like in meucheln (to murder) and schleichen (to sneak),

– in the diminuitive suffix chen like in Mädchen and Tischchen (try it: Tisch pause chen),

– when it is preceded by an umlaut like in rächen (to revenge), Köchelverzeichnis and schüchtern (shy). When a singular noun becomes plural, the ch-sound like in ach changes to the ch-sound like in ich, preceded by an umlaut: Dach (roof) and Dächer, Buch and Bücher, Loch and Löcher.

Be aware that there are words with two ch and both sounds, like Nachricht.

Practise: Manche Mädchen möchten lachen oder lächeln oder einfach lächerliche Sachen machen.