The Danish Plural Helper suggests how to form the plural of a Danish noun from its gender and stem. Danish nouns split into common gender (the en words) and neuter (the et words), and the plural ending depends partly on that gender, partly on the word’s shape. This tool applies the regular rules — the -er, -e and zero plural classes — together with the spelling changes that happen at the stem.
How it works
Danish has three productive plural endings:
- -er — the default and most common, especially for longer common-gender words and loanwords: en bil → biler, en station → stationer.
- -e — frequent for one-syllable words of both genders: en hund → hunde, et bord → borde.
- zero (no ending) — common for many neuter monosyllables: et år → år, et fjeld → fjelde (note many take -e instead).
Before the ending is added, several stem changes apply:
- A trailing unstressed -e is dropped before -er: en pige → piger.
- Words ending in -el, -en or -er usually drop the vowel of that final syllable: en cykel → cykler, et tegn → tegn.
- A short stressed vowel followed by a single consonant often doubles that consonant: en kop → kopper, et tal → tal (zero) vs en hat → hatte.
Tips and limits
Gender is a strong but not perfect predictor. Many high-frequency nouns are irregular (barn → børn, mand → mænd, hånd → hænder) and cannot be derived from spelling alone. Use the helper to get the likely regular class, then confirm against a dictionary such as Den Danske Ordbog for anything you are unsure of. Everything runs locally in your browser — nothing you type leaves the page.