Darts or darts: What does the Duden actually say? 🎯

Lukas ist Dart Fan der ersten Stunde und seit über 10 Jahren passionierter Dartspieler. Spätestens nach dem Besuch der Darts WM 2016 im ehrwürdigen Alexandra Palace mit seinem späteren Co-Founder und damaligen WG-Partner Timm war für ihn klar: Darts muss auch in Deutschland größer und bekannter werden. Mit myDartpfeil und dem weltweit einzigartigen Dartpfeil Konfigurator kann sich jeder Dartspieler - von Anfänger bis Profi - seine eigenen, perfekten Dartpfeile zusammenstellen und individuell gestalten.

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Play like the pros - your dart for the champion in you

A discussion has always divided darts fans in Germany. So is it called darts or darts? We'll try to get to the bottom of this question in more detail in our blog post in order to shed some light on it for you.

Ultimately, we can already anticipate that there is no absolutely right or absolutely wrong here. Ultimately it also depends on each dart player's interpretation .

Please give us feedback on how you handle the pronunciation. Darts or darts? We are looking forward to your feedback.

Plural and singular – when does the “s” come after the word dart

In some formulations, however, it is grammatically quite clear when the “s” after the word dart is used, at least in German, and when it should not be used.

We'll try to explain this to you using a few examples. If you talk about darts as a gaming device in the plural , then it is completely okay if the “s” is added .

When you take a good shot, you logically say that it was good darts and not good darts. Here the sound of the pronunciation alone is enough to avoid going astray.

It can therefore be said that the issue of playground equipment can be handled as follows:

You threw a good dart (if only one dart was good)
You threw good darts (if all three arrows hit their target )

But just explaining the play equipment isn't enough. The discussion goes much deeper.

Fun fact: To put the whole thing in perspective, you could also say: I throw a dart or several darts - simply translated into a different way of saying it.

The pronunciation of the sport itself: darts or darts?

Now this is where things get very interesting. Darts or darts? Opinions differ. Let's try to explain our point of view. As a game itself, it is normally called “darts” .

Since hardly anyone speaks colloquially like this, it is not wrong to move away from this formulation. So I'm going to play a game of darts and not a game of darts.

The reason: Darts with an “s” is only used when it is called “das Darts”, i.e. the terminology of the sport is generalized. We admit: We also had to think about it for a moment. Ultimately it should be understandable.

However, due to the generalization, the Duden refers to “darts”. Logically, this is by no means wrong.

However, certain terms make more sense without the “s”.

In the end, however, opinions differ on many terms. It is frowned upon by many players to use the “s” after everything and any term relating to darts. A few examples to make this clear to you.

You use a board when playing. That's why we're talking about a dartboard and not a dartboard, or how do you see that? Deriving purely from the Duden, one could argue that it could also be called dartsboard.

In such cases, the discussion cannot be clearly clarified, so we leave it up to each player to decide for themselves what they would like to call the darts professional .

Official names of tournaments

But what about less free titles around darts? For example, the official names of tournaments . Stop, before we get to that, we notice:

Darts sport or darts sport, darts player or darts player? With many terms in this sport, the question arises as to whether the term is written with two s or just one s.

Once again, many readers will certainly have question marks on their foreheads. We at myDartpfeil keep it with an “s”. Many dart fans in the internet forums also see it this way – at least according to our research. An “s” ultimately covers both, doesn’t it?

But now back to the actual topic, namely the official tournament names and designations .

Here it is important to distinguish between the German and the English name. In English, the original title for a tournament, it often comes from darts.

But here there are simple reasons. It is grammatically correct in English to simply add the “s”. However, this is not quite so clear in German.

While some media report on the Darts World Cup, others leave it at the Darts World Cup, true to the English model. Yes, what now? Here, too, we can unfortunately provide a very clear explanation for everyone .

Since the exact name does not matter in the German context, it is never officially called that. Therefore, there is no official guideline that German fans can adhere to.

So you can decide for yourself how to handle this. While I personally prefer the Darts World Cup , there will certainly be many people here who are more inclined to the Darts World Cup.

My opinion here is that according to Duden it is the sport “darts”, which is why I also use the “s” here.

Darts True or False?

There is currently no right or wrong answer to the question of darts or darts in every context. Therefore, we continue to leave it to each player themselves .

It's also nice when you can have a passionate discussion about the terminology. We would therefore be pleased if you would also share your views with us. What do you think about the “s” at the end?

myDart(s)arrow?

Now another very special example. Just look at the company name of our startup for a second. Here we are talking about “myDartpfeil”, not “myDartspfeil”.

In this context it can also be clearly explained, we are referring here to your perfect dart - i.e. a single arrow . Logically, with a whole set of three darts, the “s” makes it to the end again.

You notice: the context and what you want to say play a huge role when it comes to differentiating between darts and darts.

So, now it's your turn. Or maybe someone has the absolute solution?

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Darts or darts? – the eternal discussion [grammar for beginners]

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Lukas Haas