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    Plurals: English Plural Nouns

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    Anonymous BECpA3
    The document discusses English plural nouns, including regular and irregular plural forms. Regular plurals are formed by adding "s", while irregular plurals have different forms such as mice, geese, children. There are also rules for making nouns ending in certain letters like "ch", "x", "s", "z" plural by adding "es". Foreign nouns may retain their plural form or take an English plural ending. Some nouns are always singular. The document provides many examples of singular and plural noun forms to illustrate these rules and patterns.

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    Plurals: English Plural Nouns

    Uploaded by

    Anonymous BECpA3
    108 views10 pages
    The document discusses English plural nouns, including regular and irregular plural forms. Regular plurals are formed by adding "s", while irregular plurals have different forms such as mice, geese, children. There are also rules for making nouns ending in certain letters like "ch", "x", "s", "z" plural by adding "es". Foreign nouns may retain their plural form or take an English plural ending. Some nouns are always singular. The document provides many examples of singular and plural noun forms to illustrate these rules and patterns.

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    making plural forms of nouns

    Original Title

    Plural s

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    The document discusses English plural nouns, including regular and irregular plural forms. Regular plurals are formed by adding "s", while irregular plurals have different forms such as mice, geese, children. There are also rules for making nouns ending in certain letters like "ch", "x", "s", "z" plural by adding "es". Foreign nouns may retain their plural form or take an English plural ending. Some nouns are always singular. The document provides many examples of singular and plural noun forms to illustrate these rules and patterns.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    108 views10 pages

    Plurals: English Plural Nouns

    Uploaded by

    Anonymous BECpA3
    The document discusses English plural nouns, including regular and irregular plural forms. Regular plurals are formed by adding "s", while irregular plurals have different forms such as mice, geese, children. There are also rules for making nouns ending in certain letters like "ch", "x", "s", "z" plural by adding "es". Foreign nouns may retain their plural form or take an English plural ending. Some nouns are always singular. The document provides many examples of singular and plural noun forms to illustrate these rules and patterns.

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    Plurals

    English plural nouns


    In order to change a singular noun to its plural form in English, you usually add "s".
    For example, the plural of book is books. The plural of table istables. These
    are regular plurals.
    But there are many nouns which don't follow this rule. For example the plural
    of fish is fish. The plural of tooth is teeth. These are irregular plurals

    Regular plurals:
    Form:
    Add "s" to the noun:

    Noun

    +S

    While many plural nouns follow this rule, the spelling sometimes differ.

    Examples:
    Singular

    Plural

    snake

    snakes

    window

    windows

    box

    boxes

    boy

    boys

    lorry

    lorries

    potato

    potatoes

    knife

    knives

    Spelling of plurals:

    The plural form of most nouns is created simply by adding the letter "s".

    more than one snake = snakes

    more than one girl = girls

    more than one window = windows

    Nouns that end in -ch, x, s, z or s-like sounds, however, will require an es for the
    plural:

    more than one witch = witches

    more than one box = boxes

    more than one gas = gases

    more than one bus = buses

    more than one kiss = kisses

    Nouns that end in a vowel + y take the letter s:

    more than one boy = boys

    more than one way = ways

    Nouns that end in a consonant + y drop the y and take ies:

    more than one baby = babies

    more than one lorry = lorries

    A lot of nouns that end in o take es in the plural:

    echo
    embargo
    hero

    more than one potato = potatoes

    more than one hero = heroes

    o becomes oes
    echoes
    embargoes
    heroes

    potato
    tomato
    torpedo
    veto

    potatoes
    tomatoes
    torpedoes
    vetoes

    Some nouns ending in o break the above rule and get os in the plural form:

    o becomes os
    auto
    kangaroo
    kilo
    memo
    photo
    piano
    pimento
    pro
    solo
    soprano
    studio
    tattoo
    video
    zoo

    autos
    kangaroos
    kilos
    memos
    photos
    pianos
    pimentos
    pros
    solos
    sopranos
    studios
    tattoos
    videos
    zoos

    Other nouns ending in o get either os or oes i the plural forms:

    buffalo
    cargo
    halo
    mosquito
    motto
    no
    tornado
    volcano
    zero

    o becomes os or oes
    buffalos/buffaloes
    cargos/cargoes
    halos/haloes
    mosquitos/mosquitoes
    mottos/mottoes
    nos/noes
    tornados/tornadoes
    volcanos/volcanoes
    zeros/zeroes

    Plurals of nouns that end in f or fe usually change the f sound to a v sound and
    add s or -es.

    more than one knife = knives

    more than one leaf = leaves

    more than one hoof = hooves

    more than one life = lives

    more than one self = selves

    more than one elf = elves

    Irregular plurals:
    There are several nouns that have irregular plural forms.
    Singular

    Plural

    fish

    fish

    sheep

    sheep

    barracks

    barracks

    foot

    feet

    tooth

    teeth

    goose

    geese

    tooth

    teeth

    goose

    geese

    child

    children

    man

    men

    woman

    women

    person

    people

    mouse

    mice

    Plurals formed in this way are sometimes called irregular plurals or mutated (or
    mutating) plurals.

    more than one child = children

    more than one woman = women

    more than one man = men

    more than one person = people

    more than one goose = geese

    more than one mouse = mice

    more than one barracks = barracks

    more than one deer = deer

    Other irregular plural forms include the following:


    Some foreign nouns retain their plural. (Note that some of them adapted the s of
    the English plural form!)

    Singular
    alga
    amoeba
    antenna
    formula
    larva
    nebula
    vertebra

    Foreign plural
    algae
    amoebae
    antennae
    formulae
    larvae
    nebulae
    vertebrae

    English plural
    amoebas
    antennas
    formulas
    nebulas

    Nouns ending in us get a, i or the s of the English plural:

    Singular
    corpus
    genus
    alumnus
    bacillus
    cactus
    focus
    fungus
    nucleus
    octopus
    radius
    stimulus
    syllabus
    terminus

    Foreign plural
    corpora
    genera
    alumni
    bacilli
    cacti
    foci
    fungi
    nuclei
    octopi
    radii
    stimuli
    syllabi
    termini

    English plural

    cactuses
    funguses
    octopuses

    syllabuses

    Nouns ending in um get a, i or the s of the English plural:

    Singular

    Foreign plural

    addendum
    bacterium
    curriculum
    datum
    erratum
    medium
    memorandum
    ovum
    stratum
    symposium

    addenda
    bacteria
    curricula
    data
    errata
    media
    memoranda
    ova
    strata
    symposia

    English plural

    curriculums

    memorandums

    symposiums

    Nouns ending in ex or ix get ices or get the s of the English plural:

    Singular

    Foreign plural

    English plural

    apex

    apices

    apexes

    appendix

    appendices

    appendixes

    cervix

    cervices

    cervixes

    index

    indices

    indexes

    matrix

    matrices

    matrixes

    vortex

    vortices

    Nouns ending in is becoming es in plural:

    Singular

    Plural form

    analysis

    analyses

    axis

    axes

    basis

    bases

    crisis

    crises

    diagnosis

    diagnoses

    emphasis

    emphases

    hypothesis

    hypotheses

    neurosis

    neuroses

    oasis

    oases

    parenthesis

    parentheses

    synopsis

    synopses

    thesis

    theses

    Nouns ending in -on becoming -a:

    singular

    plural

    criterion

    criteria

    phenomenon

    phenomena

    automaton

    automata

    Nouns that are always singular:


    A handful of nouns appear to be plural in form but take a singular verb:

    The news is bad.

    Gymnastics is fun to watch.

    Economics/mathematics/statistics is said to be difficult.

    Some nouns never take the s of the plural and are always singular:

    your luggage / baggage is so heavy

    I'd like to buy new furniture for the house

    you can find more information in our website.

    What is the correct plural of the word?


    1. These (person)

    are protesting against the president.

    2. The (woman)

    3. My (child)

    over there want to meet the manager.

    hate eating pasta.

    4. I am ill. My (foot)

    hurt.

    5. Muslims kill (sheep)

    6. I clean my (tooth)

    7. The (student )

    8. The (fish)

    in a religious celebration.

    three times a day.

    are doing the exercise right now.

    I bought is in the fridge.

    9. They are sending some (man)

    10.Most (houswife)

    to fix the roof.

    work more than ten hours a day at home.

    11.Where did you put the (knife)

    On the (shelf)

    12.(Goose)

    like water.

    13.(Piano)

    are expensive

    14.Some (policeman)

    15.Where is my (luggage)

    came to arrest him.

    In the car!
    Write down the correct form of the plural:
    1. city -

    2. house -

    3. boy -

    4. family -

    5. life -

    6. photo -

    7. phone -

    8. sandwich -

    9. nurse -

    10.elf -

    11.phenomenon -

    12.criterion -

    13.village -

    14.toy -

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