Plural forms of nouns
450 fill-in-the-gap exercises, 45 tests of ten
Most nouns add -s. The rules for the rest are short, and the irregulars are worth learning by heart.
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The five spelling rules
Most of English plural spelling is covered by five rules, and the table above has them all. Two are worth a second look.
Consonant plus y becomes -ies. Look at the letter before the y:
city → cities (t is a consonant) but day → days (a is a vowel).
-f and -fe usually become -ves, but not always:
- change: knife, wife, life, leaf, half, shelf, wolf, loaf, thief, calf
- do not change: roof, chief, belief, cliff, proof, chef
When in doubt, roofs and beliefs are the ones people get wrong.
The irregulars
A short list, and almost all of it is very common vocabulary:
man → men, woman → women, child → children, person → people, foot → feet, tooth → teeth, goose → geese, mouse → mice, ox → oxen
Nouns that do not change
sheep, fish, deer, aircraft, series, species, means, salmon, trout
Fish has a second plural, fishes, used for different species rather than individual animals.
Words from Latin and Greek
Academic vocabulary often keeps its original plural:
analysis → analyses, basis → bases, crisis → crises, thesis → theses, appendix → appendices, cactus → cacti, phenomenon → phenomena, criterion → criteria
Note that criteria and phenomena are plural. A criteria is wrong; the singular is criterion.
Plurals that take a singular verb
Some words end in -s but count as one thing:
News is good. Mathematics is hard. Twenty euros is enough.
And some are always plural: trousers, scissors, glasses, jeans — counted with a pair of.
All forms
| Ending | Rule | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| most nouns | add -s | book → books, cat → cats |
| -ch, -sh, -s, -x, -z | add -es | box → boxes, church → churches |
| consonant + y | -y becomes -ies | baby → babies, city → cities |
| vowel + y | add -s | day → days, key → keys |
| -f, -fe | usually -ves | knife → knives, leaf → leaves |
| -o | usually -es | potato → potatoes, tomato → tomatoes |
| irregular | learn them | child → children, foot → feet |
| no change | same form | sheep, fish, series, species |
Examples
Taken from the 450 sentences in this drill. The answer is highlighted.
- a country - countries
- a mouse - mice
- a tooth - teeth
- a tree - trees
- a woman - women
- a phone - phones
- a chair - chairs
- a table - tables
- a man - men
- a dog - dogs
- a city - cities
- a child - children
Mistakes to avoid
Wrong: two childs correct: two children
Child is irregular.
Wrong: three knifes correct: three knives
Nouns ending in -f or -fe usually change to -ves.
Wrong: many informations correct: a lot of information
Information is uncountable and has no plural at all.