Creating plurals nouns in English is easy, all you have to do is add -s to the end of the nouns (+ s). For example, girl → girls and boy → boys. Well, it is almost that easy. Some nouns you have to add -es to the end of the word (+ es). And then there are other nouns that are even more complicated! Like most grammar rules in English the simple rule for making plurals does not always apply, there are exceptions. There are irregular nouns that require a little more work for you to create the plural, but hopefully after taking a look at this post you will have a better idea of what you have to do. Below is a table to help you better understand how to make some of the most common irregular plural nouns. This table does not include nouns that change form entirely, for example man → men and person →people as there are not as many concrete rules for these irregular plural nouns. These irregulars are ones you will just have to memorize – sorry. I hope this table helps, you can always bookmark this page and come back to it when you need help in this area. Remember that Transparent Language has many resources to help you learn English, so be sure to check out all we offer at www.transparent.com.
Noun type by word ending: |
How to make the plural: |
Some examples: |
words ending in -fe |
f → v + s |
knife → knives, wife → wives |
words ending in -f |
f → v + es |
half → halves, loaf → loaves |
words ending in -is |
is → es |
analysis → analyses, crisis → crises |
words ending in -o, -s, -sh, -ch, -x, -z |
+ es |
potato → potatoes, box → boxes |
words ending in -on |
on → a |
phenomenon → phenomena, criterion → criteria |
words ending in -us |
us → i |
focus → foci, syllabus → syllabi |
words ending in a consonant + -y |
y → i + es |
spy → spies, fly →flies |