Editing Plautdietsch (section)

====Plurals====
Plural formation is comparatively complex. Three major procedures can be established: 1) through an ending, -a, -en, -s, -sch or none at all; 2) voicing the final devoiced consonant and 3) fronting (and maybe lowering) a back vowel, which might require palatalization of a velar consonant. A given word could have one or two, all or none of these characteristics.

=====Examples=====
'''No ending''', no voicing, no vowel fronting: de Fesch de Fesch, daut Schop, de Schop, daut Been, de Been (fish, fishes; sheep, sheep; leg, legs)

Voicing, no ending, no vowel fronting: Frint, Friend; Boajch, Boaj (friend/s, mountain/s)

No ending, no voicing, vowel fronting: Foot, Feet (foot, feet)

Voicing and vowel fronting, no ending: Hoot, Heed (hat/s)

'''-a ending:'''

only: Licht, Lichta (light/s)

with voicing: {{lang|de|Bilt, Bilda}} (picture/s)

with vowel fronting: Maun, Mana (man, men)

with voicing, vowel fronting and palatalization: Kaulf, Kjalwa (calf, calves)

'''-en ending''' (the -en, -s and -sch endings have no vowel fronting)

only: Näs Näsen, (nose/s)

with voicing: de Tiet, de Tieden, de Erfoarunk, de Erfoarungen (time/s, experience/s)

Words where a historical r is dropped require it to be reinserted: Däa, Däaren (door/s)
Polysyllabic words with a vocalized r drop the final a: Sesta, Sestren (sister/s)

An unstressed [[schwa]] also is dropped: Gaufel, Gauflen (fork/s)

'''-s ending'''

This class consists mainly of 1) short masculine and neuter nouns: Baul -s, Oarm -s (ball/s, arm/s)

2) words related with family members: Sän -s, Fru -es, (son/s, woman, women)

and 3) masculine and neuter nouns ending in -el and -en (the latter may drop the n): Läpel, Läpels; Goaden, Goades (spoon/s; garden/s)

'''-sch ending'''

This class consists of masculine and neuter polysyllabic nouns ending with -a: de Voda, de Vodasch; daut Massa, de Massasch (father/s, knife, knives)

For someone knowing (High) German, pluralizing is a fairly predictable process, with some exceptions: the '''-en''' ending covers pretty much the same words in both languages; the '''-a''' ending is the equivalent for the German '''-er''' plural, where German has [[Germanic umlaut|Umlaut]], Plautdietsch will have vowel fronting in most cases. The '''-s''' and '''-sch''' groups are made almost entirely of polysyllabic nouns which in German have no plural ending.

The most problematic words are those with an '''-e''' plural ending in German. Although the entire class with no ending is made out of them, many other words are treated differently. For example, the plurals for '''Stool''' and '''Stock''' (chair and stick) are '''Steela''' and '''Stakja''' (compare German Stuhl, Stühle; Stock, Stöcke). Since they have their vowels fronted there seems to be no reason for the '''-a''' ending. Many others have been moved into the '''-en''' class: '''Jeboot, Jebooten''' (commandment/s, German: Gebot, Gebote). With some not so common words, there is no certainty about the correct plural, different speakers create them in different ways: the plural of '''Jesaz''' (law) could be '''Jesaza''' or '''Jesazen''' (German: Gesetz, Gesetze).