Collective Nouns | Nouns | Parts Of Speech | German

Collective nouns in German name groups or collections and shape how you think about quantity and unity.

Groups

Groups are named by nouns that often end in -schaft, -tum or -ei and highlight a social or functional unit.

	German Word	English Translation
	die Mannschaft	the team
	die Freundschaft	the friendship
	das Eigentum	the property
	die Bäckerei	the bakery

Fill in the BlankDie(team) hat das Spiel gewonnen.

The team won the game.

Species and Types

Nouns for species or types of things often end in -herde, -schwarm or -bande and name natural or informal groups.

	German Word	English Translation
	die Herde	the herd
	der Schwarm	the swarm
	die Bande	the gang
	die Meute	the pack

Institutions

Institutions and organized groups are named by collective nouns that can refer both to the entity and its members, like das Parlament or die Universität.

	German Word	English Translation
	das Parlament	the parliament
	die Universität	the university
	die Polizei	the police
	die Armee	the army

Materials and Collectives

Some collective nouns name materials or large collectives, turning a group of things into a single mass or category, like das Getreide or das Gerät.

	German Word	English Translation
	das Getreide	the grain
	das Gerät	the equipment
	das Holz	the wood
	das Metall	the metal

Usage

Collective nouns usually take singular agreement when the group is seen as one unit, but can take plural when attention is on individual members.

Summary

Collective nouns shape how you talk about groups, whether social units, species, institutions or materials, and guide singular vs. plural agreement.

Last updated: Fri Oct 24, 2025