Plural Nouns

Plural Nouns
How to form plural nouns?
Firstly, nouns have two forms: singular and plural. Singular form
nouns refer to a single person, place, or thing and are easy to understand.
For example:
‘Where is the piano?’
In this sentence, the noun is the word ‘piano’ and it is singular because
there is only one. If there were more than one piano, the sentence would
be:
‘Where are the pianos?’
In this case, to change the noun from singular to plural, you just add an ‘-
s’. However, that isn’t the rule for every noun. We’ll look in more detail at
the different plural rules for nouns below.
Plural rule #1: -s and -es suffixes
The first rule is the simplest one and follows the same pattern as the piano
– pianos example we listed above. For many nouns, to form the plural, just
add the suffix ‘-s’ to the noun. For example:
 orange – oranges
 pen – pens
Or, if the word ends with –ss, -x, -ch, or –sh, add the suffix ‘-es’. For
example:
 dress – dresses
 fox – foxes
 bench – benches
 dish – dishes
Plural rule #2: -y and -ie suffixes
The next plural rule is that if the noun ends with ‘-y’ and is preceded by a
consonant, you add ‘-es’ suffix and change the ‘-y’ to an ‘-i’. For example:
 cherry – cherries
 puppy – puppies
However, if there is a vowel before the letter ‘-y’ (ey, ay, oy), simply add
‘–s’ without changing anything else. For example:
 monkey – monkeys
 toy – toys
 day – days
Ready to practice? Write the plurals of the examples below:
 strawberry ___strawberries___________________
 picture ________pictures______________
 tax __________taxes_____________
 pillow ________pillows______________
 watch __________watches____________
 cowboy _______________cowboys_______
Plural rule #3: -o endings
The next rule is when a noun ends with a vowel, then an ‘-o’, you only add
an ‘-s’. For example:
 pistachio – pistachios
 stereo – stereos
However, if there is a consonant before the ’-o’, in general, you add ‘-es’.
For example:
 hero – heroes
 veto – vetoes
There are some cases where just an ‘-s’ is added, for example:
 piano – pianos
Plural rule #4: -f and -fe endings
A noun ending in ‘-f’ or ‘-fe’ has its own rule. You have to replace ‘-f’ or
‘-fe’ with ‘-v’ and add ‘-es’. For example:
 wife – wives
 knife – knives
 loaf – loaves
Be careful, though, as again there are exceptions to this rule. Not all words
that end in ‘-f’ change in this way. For example:
 chef – chefs
For nouns that end ‘-ff’, just add ‘-s’. Nothing else changes. For example:
 cliff – cliffs
 puff – puffs
Plural rule #5: some ‘-s’ and ‘-z’ endings
For some nouns that end in ‘-s’ or ‘-z’, you have to double the ‘-s’ or ‘-z’
and add ‘-es’. For example:
 fez – fezzes
 gas – gasses
Irregular plural nouns in English
As the name suggests, irregular nouns are nouns that don’t follow regular
rules for forming plurals. Regular plural nouns follow the rules we
explained above.
These are called ‘irregular plurals’. Unfortunately, because they don’t

follow any pattern, they just need to be learned and memorized.
Here is a list of some of the most common irregular PLURAL nouns:
 child – children
 person – people
 man – men
 woman – women
 tooth – teeth
 foot – feet
 mouse – mice
 goose – geese
 ox – oxen
There are also many words in the English language that are of Latin,
French or Greek origin. These also have irregular plural forms. For
example:
 basis – bases
 radius – radii
 syllabus – syllabi
Singular and plural nouns that are the same.
Finally, the most straightforward nouns are those that don’t change. They
are the same in both the singular and plural form. Some of the most
common are:
 sheep
 fish
 means
 species
 series
 ice
 deer

Plural Nouns

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Plural Nouns

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Plural Nouns

How to form plural nouns?

‘Where is the piano?’

‘Where are the pianos?’

Ready to practice? Write the plurals of the examples below:

Plural rule #5: some ‘-s’ and ‘-z’ endings

These are called ‘irregular plurals’. Unfortunately, because they don’t

Here is a list of some of the most common irregular PLURAL nouns:

Singular and plural nouns that are the same.

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