| Most nouns add -s when plural | example: song - songs
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| add es to nouns with final: sh,ch,s,z, and x | example: box - boxes
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| words with consonant+y is spelled with -ies | example: baby - babies
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| some irregular nouns don't use -s | Examples: man - men, ox - oxen, tooth - teeth, woman - women, foot - feet, mouse - mice, child - children, goose - geese, louse - lice |
| some nouns that end in -o add -es | Examples: echo - echoes, potato - potatoes, hero - heroes, tomato - tomatoes |
| some nouns that end in -o add only -s | Examples: auto -autos, ghetto - ghettos, kangaroo - kangaroos, kilo - kilos, memo - memos, photo - photos, piano - pianos, radio - radios, solo - solos, soprano - sopranos, studio - studios, tatoo - tatoos, video - videos, zoo - zoos |
| some nouns that end in -o add -es or -s | Examples: mosquito - mosquitoes/mosquitos, tornado - tornadoes/tornado, volcano - volcanoes/volcanos, zero - zeroes/zeros |
| some nouns that end in -f or -fe change to -ves | Examples: calf - calves, half - halves, knife - knives, leaf - leaves, life - lives, loaf - loaves, self - selves, shelf - shelves, thief - thieves, wolf - wolves, scarf - scarves |
| some nouns that end in -f add -s | Examples: belief - beliefs, chief - chiefs, cliff - cliffs, roof - roofs |
| some nouns use the same form for singular and plural | Examples: deer, fish, means, offspring, series, sheep, shrimp, deer, species |
| some nouns from other languages use foreign plurals | Examples: criterion - criteria, phenomenon - phenomena, cactus - cacti/cactuses, fungus - fungi, nucleus - nuclei, stimulus - stimuli, syllabus - syllabi/syllabuses, formula - formulae/formulas, vertebra - vertebrae, appendix - appendices/appendixes, index - indices/indexes, analysis - analyses, basis - bases, crisis - crises, hypothesis - hypotheses, oasis - oases, parenthesis - parentheses, thesis -theses, bacterium - bacteria, curriculum - curricula, datum - data, medium - media, memorandum - memoranda |
This page is one of PLS's English grammar pages for people who want to learn or improve their English grammar skills.
