Marathi Plurals: How to Make Nouns Plural by Gender
How Marathi plurals work across all three genders — masculine, feminine, and neuter — with 15 worked examples and adjective agreement rules.
मुलगा (mulagā, boy) is masculine. Its plural is मुलगे (mulage, boys). This is not मुले — that would be the plural of मूल (mūl, child), a neuter noun. Getting these two confused isn't just a small error; the words refer to entirely different things. Marathi plurals are gender-specific, and Marathi has three genders. That means there are three distinct pluralization patterns, plus adjective agreement rules that change to match each one.
If you've been learning plurals from Hindi instinct — where masculine and feminine cover everything — this post will clarify what's actually happening in Marathi, and why certain word-ending patterns point you toward the right plural every time.
Why Gender Controls Everything in Marathi Plurals
Before the patterns themselves, one foundational point: Marathi is a three-gender language. Masculine (पुल्लिंग, pullinga), feminine (स्त्रीलिंग, strīlinga), and neuter (नपुंसकलिंग, napumsakalinga) each produce different plural endings. A noun's singular form doesn't always reveal its gender from the ending alone — there are exceptions — but the general patterns are reliable enough to give you a strong working hypothesis for most vocabulary.
The Marathi three-gender system explains how gender assignment works for adjective agreement and verb endings in the present and past tense. Plurals add one more dimension to the same logic: not only does the noun ending change, but any adjective modifying it must pluralize in a corresponding way. Master both together and you'll avoid the most common intermediate-level stumble.
Masculine Plurals: -आ Endings Become -ए
Most masculine nouns in Marathi end in -आ (-ā) in the singular. The plural changes this to -ए (-e).
| Singular | Romanization | English | Plural | Romanization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| मुलगा | mulagā | boy | मुलगे | mulage |
| घोडा | ghoḍā | horse | घोडे | ghoḍe |
| कुत्रा | kutrā | dog (male) | कुत्रे | kutre |
| दगड | dagaḍ | stone | दगड | dagaḍ |
| शेतकरी | śetkārī | farmer | शेतकरी | śetkārī |
A few things worth noting in this table. दगड (dagaḍ, stone) is masculine but ends in a consonant, not -आ — its plural form is identical to the singular. Context and the accompanying verb form tell you whether one stone or many stones are meant. शेतकरी (śetkārī, farmer) ends in -ई, which typically signals feminine nouns, but here it's masculine — another case where the ending is a guide, not a guarantee.
The most useful masculine plural to lock in early: मुलगा → मुलगे. It appears in hundreds of sentences about people and is the clearest demonstration of the -आ → -ए shift.
Adjectives follow the noun into the plural. The adjective चांगला (cāṅgalā, good, masculine) shifts to चांगले (cāṅgale) when modifying masculine plural nouns:
एक चांगला मुलगा (ek cāṅgalā mulagā) — a good boy
दोन चांगले मुलगे (don cāṅgale mulage) — two good boys
The -आ of both the noun and the adjective changes to -ए together. They move as a unit.
Feminine Plurals: -ई and -ा Endings Follow Different Rules
Feminine nouns fall into two main groups. Nouns ending in -ई (-ī) shift the ending to -या (-yā) in the plural. Nouns ending in -आ (-ā) — rarer in feminine nouns, but present — take -आ → -या as well. Nouns ending in a consonant often stay unchanged.
| Singular | Romanization | English | Plural | Romanization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| मुलगी | mulagī | girl | मुली | mulī |
| नदी | nadī | river | नद्या | nadyā |
| साडी | sāḍī | saree | साड्या | sāḍyā |
| आई | āī | mother | आया | āyā |
| खुर्ची | khurchī | chair | खुर्च्या | khurchyā |
The shift for मुलगी (mulagī, girl) → मुली (mulī, girls) might look like a simple vowel shortening rather than -ई → -या, but the longer words show the fuller pattern. साडी → साड्या and नदी → नद्या reveal that the -या ending attaches after the consonant, with the final -ई dropping. For short words like मुलगी, the practical output looks like -ई → -ी, but the underlying rule is the same.
आई (āī, mother) is irregular in the way family terms often are. Its plural आया (āyā) is well established but sounds nothing like you'd predict from the singular alone. Learn it as a pair.
The feminine adjective form also shifts in the plural. चांगली (cāṅgalī, good, feminine singular) becomes चांगल्या (cāṅgalyā) in the feminine plural:
एक चांगली मुलगी (ek cāṅgalī mulagī) — a good girl
तीन चांगल्या मुली (tīn cāṅgalyā mulī) — three good girls
The -ल्या ending on the adjective is the reliable marker that you're in feminine plural territory.
Neuter Plurals: -ए and the Irregular Shifts That Catch Everyone
Neuter is where most learners hit trouble. The common pattern for neuter nouns: nouns ending in a consonant or in -ए (-e) shift to -ई (-ī) in the plural. But neuter has a higher rate of irregular plurals than the other genders.
| Singular | Romanization | English | Plural | Romanization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| मूल | mūl | child | मुले | mule |
| फूल | phūl | flower | फुले | phule |
| घर | ghar | house | घरे | ghare |
| पुस्तक | pustak | book | पुस्तके | pustake |
| झाड | jhāḍ | tree | झाडे | jhāḍe |
Wait — मूल → मुले? That's -ए, not -ई. And घर → घरे, पुस्तक → पुस्तके — also -ए. So what happened to the -ई rule? The honest answer: the neuter plural pattern is less uniform than the masculine or feminine patterns. The dominant neuter plural suffix in colloquial speech is actually -ए, with certain nouns taking -ई in more formal or literary usage. In everyday Pune and Mumbai Marathi, you'll hear मुले, घरे, झाडे, फुले far more than the -ई variants.
This is also the source of a classic confusion. मुले (mule) looks like it should be feminine — -ए resembles the masculine plural ending from section one. It isn't. मुले is specifically the neuter plural of मूल (mūl, child — a child of unspecified sex). मुलगे (mulage, boys) is the masculine plural of मुलगा. Getting these two right matters when you're talking about children versus boys specifically.
The neuter plural adjective form is also -ए (-e). चांगले (cāṅgale, good, neuter) stays चांगले in the plural — in this gender, the singular and plural adjective forms are often identical:
एक चांगले मूल (ek cāṅgale mūl) — a good child (singular neuter)
पाच चांगली मुले (pāc cāṅgalī mule) — five good children (plural neuter)
That last adjective form — चांगली with the neuter plural मुले — is genuinely irregular. The plural neuter often takes the feminine-looking adjective form. This catches even intermediate learners. Accept it as an exception, hear it enough times, and it will settle.
Adjective Agreement in the Plural: The Full Picture
One table covers what you need:
| Gender | Singular adjective | Plural adjective | Example plural phrase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | चांगला | चांगले | चांगले मुलगे — good boys |
| Feminine | चांगली | चांगल्या | चांगल्या मुली — good girls |
| Neuter | चांगले | चांगली | चांगली मुले — good children |
The neuter column is the anomaly: neuter singular adjectives end in -ए, while neuter plural adjectives take -ई. This flip is real and you will encounter it. The word that explains most of it is that colloquial Marathi has simplified some of these forms in speech — you'll often hear चांगले मुले in casual Mumbai speech, with the neuter plural adjective staying -ए — but the standard written form and Pune formal register use चांगली मुले for the neuter plural.
The verb agreement in the Marathi verb tenses overview follows the same gender logic: past-tense verbs take -ला for masculine, -ली for feminine, and -ले/-लें for neuter. The adjective pluralization pattern here is an extension of the same system. If you've internalized verb agreement, the plural adjective forms will feel like repetition rather than new material.
15 Worked Examples Across People, Objects, and Abstract Nouns
The patterns above become automatic through volume. Here are 15 examples spanning all three genders, covering the kinds of words learners actually use in conversation:
| Singular | Gender | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| मुलगा (mulagā) | M | मुलगे (mulage) | boys |
| भाऊ (bhāū) | M | भाऊ (bhāū) | brothers (unchanged) |
| देव (dev) | M | देव (dev) | gods (unchanged) |
| मुलगी (mulagī) | F | मुली (mulī) | girls |
| बहीण (bahīṇ) | F | बहिणी (bahinī) | sisters |
| भाजी (bhājī) | F | भाज्या (bhājyā) | vegetables |
| मूल (mūl) | N | मुले (mule) | children |
| घर (ghar) | N | घरे (ghare) | houses |
| पुस्तक (pustak) | N | पुस्तके (pustake) | books |
| झाड (jhāḍ) | N | झाडे (jhāḍe) | trees |
| फूल (phūl) | N | फुले (phule) | flowers |
| गाव (gāv) | N | गावे (gāve) | villages |
| माणूस (māṇūs) | M | माणसे (māṇase) | people (stem change) |
| स्त्री (strī) | F | स्त्रिया (striyā) | women |
| मित्र (mitra) | M | मित्र (mitra) | friends (unchanged) |
माणूस → माणसे is worth highlighting. The long -ū- in the singular shortens to -a- in the plural, a vowel change that happens with several masculine nouns whose singular form has a long vowel in a non-final syllable. It's not a common pattern, but माणूस is a high-frequency word — you'll use "people" constantly — so the irregular plural deserves its own memorization slot.
भाऊ (bhāū, brother) and मित्र (mitra, friend, male) are invariant: plural identical to singular. When the pluralness matters, the number or a demonstrative makes it clear: दोन भाऊ (don bhāū, two brothers), माझे मित्र (māzhe mitra, my friends).
What Pronoun Agreement Tells You
When a noun is plural, the pronoun you substitute for it shifts as well. हे (he) is the demonstrative for neuter singular ("this") and it also serves as the neuter plural ("these"). हा (hā) is masculine singular, हे (he) is masculine plural. ही (hī) is feminine singular, त्या (tyā) is feminine plural.
हा मुलगा (hā mulagā) — this boy
हे मुलगे (he mulage) — these boys
ही मुलगी (hī mulagī) — this girl
त्या मुली (tyā mulī) — those girls
हे मूल (he mūl) — this child
ही मुले (hī mule) — these children
The demonstrative-noun agreement follows the same adjective pattern. In Marathi pronoun forms, the third-person pronouns तो (masculine), ती (feminine), ते (neuter/plural) also track this three-way gender split — and in the plural, ते covers both neuter nouns and masculine groups.
The Real Payoff of Getting This Right
Once plural formation clicks, a large part of intermediate Marathi grammar falls into place. Plural agreement affects adjectives, demonstratives, pronouns, and past-tense verb forms — all the same -आ / -ई / -ए endings you already know from singular agreement, now applied one level up.
The honest challenge: neuter plurals require memorization for individual words more than the other two genders. There's no shortcut around मूल → मुले, माणूस → माणसे, or the adjective flip from चांगले (neuter singular) to चांगली (neuter plural). But masculine and feminine plurals are systematic enough that pattern recognition carries most of the load.
Practice these in full sentences rather than isolated word lists. "मला दोन चांगली पुस्तके हवीत" (malā don cāṅgalī pustake havīt, I want two good books) gives you neuter plural noun + neuter plural adjective + plural want-construction in one practical sentence.
The Learn Marathi app by Brightwood Apps covers noun plurals as part of the grammar units, with each vocabulary item shown in both singular and plural form alongside native-speaker audio — so you hear मुलगा and मुलगे as a natural pair rather than learning them separately.
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