Plural Nouns

A plural noun is a word that refers to more than one person or thing. To make the plural of a noun, we add the plural ending –s.  For example, ‘book’ in the plural is ‘books’.

Singular	Plural
car	cars
school	schools
dog	dogs
table	tables

That seems easy, but there are a lot of exceptions to this rule.

If the noun ends in s, x, z, ch, sh, make the plural by adding –es to the end.

Singular	Plural
bus	buses
tax	taxes
glass	glasses
bush	bushes
bench	benches

If the noun ends in a consonant and then y, take off the y and add –ies to make the plural. But if the noun ends in a vowel and then y, simply add –s.

Singular	Plural
city	cities
family	families
factory	factories
policy	policies

Nouns ending in f make the plural by changing f to –ves. In this case, es is pronounced as /z/.

Singular	Plural
wife	wives
knife	knives
wolf	wolves
leaf	leaves
shelf	shelves

Exceptions

The plurals of the following nouns are formed by adding –s.

• roof – roofs
• chief – chiefs
• cliff – cliffs
• cuff – cuffs

If the noun ends in o, add –es to form the plural.

Singular	Plural
potato	potatoes
hero	heroes
tomato	tomatoes
torpedo	torpedoes
cargo	cargoes

Exceptions

Some nouns do not follow this rule.

• piano – pianos
• zero – zeros
• photo – photos
• video – videos
• zoo – zoos

Pronunciation

Pronunciation of –s (-es) changes depending on what sound the singular noun ends in.  There are three kinds of pronunciation: /s/, /z/, /iz/.

/s/	/z/	/iz/
books	plays	horses
parks	boys	carriages
caps	doctors	foxes

Spelling

These are rules for the plurals of regular nouns.

Nouns ending in…	How to pluralize	Examples
s, x, z, ch, sh	Add –es	box → boxes watch → watches
Consonant+y	change  y to i and add –es	baby → babies lorry → lorries
f	Change f to v and add –es	loaf → loaves life → lives
o	Add –es	echo → echoes veto → vetoes

Irregular plurals

The plural of some nouns is not formed in the normal way. These are irregular plurals.  For example, ‘children’ is an irregular plural of ‘child’.

This is a list of the most common irregular plurals in English.

Singular	Plural
woman	women
man	men
child	children
tooth	teeth
foot	feet
person	people
mouse	mice
goose	geese
cactus	cacti
analysis	analyses
diagnosis	diagnoses
oasis	oases
thesis	theses
crisis	crises
phenomenon	phenomena
criterion	criteria
datum	data

Some nouns remain the same in the plural.We do not add –s or –es to make them plural.

• aircraft - aircraft
• sheep – sheep
• series – series
• species – species
• deer – deer

We identify them as singular or plural by looking at the context.

• I see a sheep in the valley
• Sheep are grazing in the field.

Nouns that are always plural

In English, some nouns are used only in the plural. They are often things that consist of two parts joined together. They cannot be used with singular verbs.

• scissors
• trousers
• clothes
• goods
• pyjamas
• headphones
• scales
• stairs
• jeans
• shorts

We can use the expression a pair of to refer to the exact number of these nouns, for example, a pair of trousers, two pairs of jeans.

Nouns that are always singular

Some nouns have no plurals, although they end in –s.

• politics
• mathematics
• phonetics
• news

Plural Nouns - Quiz 1