Plural Ending for Masculine Nouns: -ir

Masculine Nouns with -ir Plurals

Level 3

gestur (guest) → gestir (guests). Some masculine nouns take -ir in the plural instead of -ar.

How It Works

The plural endings. Every noun in this group has the same four plural endings:

  • Nominative: gestir, staðir
  • Accusative: gesti, staði
  • Dative: gestum, stöðum
  • Genitive: gesta, staða

With the article: gestirnir, gestina, gestunum, gestanna (see the article in all cases).

Common -ir nouns. gestur (guest), staður (place), fundur (meeting), vinur (friend), litur (colour), hlutur (thing), vegur (road), dalur (valley), hvalur (whale), smiður (carpenter).

The singular. The singular declines like hestur, with two things to watch:

  • The genitive singular is often -ar (staðar, fundar, vinar, litar, hlutar, vegar) and sometimes -s (gests, dals, hvals, smiðs).
  • The dative singular is -i for some nouns (gesti, fundi, vini, vegi) and has no ending for others (stað, dal, lit).

A genitive in -ar is a useful hint that a noun may take -ir, but it is not a rule: skógur (forest) has skógar in both places. Check the plural in a dictionary.

Sound changes. The dative plural -um turns an a in the stem into ö (the a-to-ö change): staðir → stöðum, dalir → dölum, hvalir → hvölum. Among these nouns, those in -kkur and -ggur add a j before -um and -a: bekkur → bekkir, bekkjum, bekkja; veggur → veggir, veggjum.

Examples (6)

  1. Í Reykjavík eru margir skemmtilegir staðir.

    There are many fun places in Reykjavík.

    Word by Word: In Reykjavík are many fun places.

    staðir is the nominative plural of staður.

  2. Vinir mínir búa í Kópavogi.

    My friends live in Kópavogur.

    Word by Word: Friends my live in Kópavogur.

  3. Við sáum þrjá hvali í gær.

    We saw three whales yesterday.

    hvali is the accusative plural: the object of sjá.

  4. Hún var á fundum allan daginn.

    She was in meetings all day.

    Word by Word: She was on meetings all the day.

    fundum is the dative plural after á (location).

  5. Við fengum marga gesti um helgina.

    We had a lot of guests at the weekend.

    Word by Word: We got many guests about the weekend.

  6. Hann málaði veggina í nýjum litum.

    He painted the walls in new colours.

    Word by Word: He painted the walls in new colours.

    veggina is the accusative plural with the article; litum is the dative plural.

Common Mistakes

  • Using -ar for the plural of an -ir noun.

    Vinar mínir búa í Kópavogi.
    Vinir mínir búa í Kópavogi.

    vinar is the genitive singular (of a friend). The plural of vinur is vinir.

  • Keeping the nominative -ir for a plural object.

    Við sáum þrjá hvalir.
    Við sáum þrjá hvali.

    The object of sjá is in the accusative, and the accusative plural of these nouns ends in -i.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Plural Ending for Masculine Nouns: -irLevel 3Masculine Nouns with -ir Plurals

Learn This First

-ir plurals build on hestur nouns.

Words in This Pattern

-s-um-a