Regular Plurals in English
Nouns in English have singular and plural forms. When you have only one of something, you use the singular form. When you have more than one, the noun must be in its plural form.
The general rule to create a regular plural is to add -s or -es to the end of the word. However, for some words, you must also change the spelling a little.
Let’s look at the regular plural of common words.
Regular Plurals
To make a regular plural in English, add -s to the end of the word.
You say 1 car but 2, 3, 4... cars.
apple - apples
book - books
color - colors
exam - exam
flower - flowers
star - stars
mother - mothers
week - weeks
Regular Plural with Irregular Spelling
Sometimes, the spelling changes at the end of the word when you add -s.
Add -es to the end of words ending in S, SS, SH, CH, X, or Z.
beach - beaches
boss - bosses
bus - buses
church - churches
dish - dishes
lunch - lunches
mass - masses
tax - taxes
For nouns ending in O
1. For some nouns ending in O, add -es to the end of the word.
hero - heroes
mosquito - mosquitoes
tomato - tomatoes
zero - zeroes
2. For nouns ending in O that are short forms of words, add -s.
bio (from biography) - bios
dynamo (from dynamoelectric machine) - dynamos
hippo (from hippopotamus) - hippos
photo (from photograph) - photos
piano (from pianoforte) - pianos
zoo (from zoological garden) - zoos
3. For other nouns ending in O, you can add -s or -es.
avocado - avocados or avocadoes
domino - dominos or dominoes
echo - echos or echoes
flamingo - flamingos or flamingoes
grotto - grottos or grottoes
mango - mangos or mangoes
tornado - tornados or tornadoes
volcano - volcanos or volcanoes
For nouns ending in Y.
1. For nouns ending in a consonant and a Y, change the Y to -ies.
ability - abilities
activity - activities
French fry - French fries
army - armies
city - cities
2. For nouns ending in a vowel and a Y, change the Y to -ies.
bay - bays
boy - boys
monkey - monkeys
ray - rays
tray - trays
toy - toys
turkey - turkeys
valley - valleys
Change in Pronunciation in the Irregular Spelling
Sometimes there is a change in the pronunciation of the ending F or FE for some words, and you add -es to the end of those words. Other times, there is no change in pronunciation or spelling.
For nouns ending in F or FE, there are three ways to make the plural.
1. The F or FE changes to -ve before adding -s, so there is a change pronunciation of the ending.
knife - knives
leaf - leaves
life - lives
wife - wives
wolf - wolves
2. However, you just add -s to the end of some words, so the plural is completely regular.
chef - chefs
cliff - cliffs
giraffe - giraffes
reef - reefs
roof - roofs
3. Some nouns have both forms.
hoof - hoofs or hooves
scarf - scarfs or scarves
Practice
Complete a short exercise to assess what you have learned.
How about Irregular Plurals?
There are many irregular plurals in English, too (for example, child - children, foot - feet, analysis - analyses, and so on), but this is a topic for this lesson.
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