When creating a piece of writing, there are many rules to follow to ensure your spelling and grammar remain correct. Spellings can provide lots of places for us to trip up - especially when it comes to plurals. Not to worry, though! In this article, we'll have a look at different aspects of plurals, including:
Plurals Meaning
Before we begin discussing plurals, let's make sure we know what plural means.
If something is plural, it means there is more than one of it. Only nouns, pronouns, or determiners can be either singular or plural.
Nouns are initially considered in their singular form and are modified to become plurals. This process is referred to as pluralization. The pluralization process most commonly involves adding suffixes (e.g., -s); however, the process can differ between different types of nouns.
Pronouns and determiners each have their own sets of words that denote pluralization:
Pronouns = we, you, and they
Determiners = these and those
In this article, we will focus on the plural forms of nouns.
Plural Nouns
Now we have a good idea of the meaning of the term plural, let's refresh ourselves with what a noun is.
A noun is a part of speech used to name a person, place, object, or concept.
Here are some examples of singular and plural nouns. Familiarize yourself with these before we go on to discuss them in more detail.
- box - boxes
- splash - splashes
- reindeer - reindeer
- fish - fish/fishes
- cactus - cacti
- hobbit - hobbits
- leaf - leaves
- cup - cups
- gas - gasses
- roof - roofs
- guppy - guppies
- tomato - tomatoes
You might notice that some of these words have been pluralized in different ways. This is because they are different types of plural nouns (e.g., regular, irregular, or zero) and therefore follow different rules to create plural forms.
Fish or Fishes?
People often get confused with the plural form of fish, but the rule is quite simple.
When there are multiple fish of the same breed, the plural is fish.
When there are multiple different breeds of fish, the plural is fishes.
Types of Plural Nouns
So, what are the different types of plural nouns?
There are three types of plural nouns:
We'll now discuss each of these in turn.
Regular Plural Nouns
Regular plural nouns are nouns in which we add the affix '-s' to the end of the singular form to create the plural.
Inflectional Affixes
An inflectional affix is a letter or group of letters added to a root word to show a grammatical change. When a word undergoes an inflectional change, the core meaning of the word stays the same.
Inflections can show a change in:
- Number, e.g., + '-s'
- Aspect, e.g., + '-ing'
- Person, e.g., + '-s'
- Tense, e.g., + '-ed'
Some examples of regular plural nouns are shown below:
Singular | Plural |
| cat | cats |
| dog | dogs |
| turtle | turtles |
| lemon | lemons |
| bowl | bowls |
| arrangement | arrangements |
| reference | references |
| photo | photos |
| emotion | emotions |
| paper | papers |
| book | books |
| web | webs |
Fig. 1 - Dogs is a regular plural noun - meaning the affix '-s' is added to the end.
Irregular Plural Nouns
Irregular plural nouns are nouns that don't follow the regular rule of adding an '-s'. There are many different rules for creating irregular plurals, each depending on what letters the singular word ends in. Let's look at some of the most important rules now.
Rules for Irregular Plural Nouns
Most of the rules for irregular plural nouns depend on the ending letters of the noun. For example, a word ending with 'ch' follows a different rule than a word ending with 'f'.
Words that End in 'S', 'SS', 'SH', 'CH', 'X', or 'Z'
These words are the closest to following the regular add an '-s' rule of regular plurals. However, for these words, you need to add '-es' to make them plural.
Some examples of words like these are:
bus → buses
moss → mosses
wish → wishes
beach → beaches
box → boxes
blitz → blitzes
There is a slight exception to this rule. Some words that end in a single -s (such as gas), add another 's' before the '-es', e.g., gasses.
Words that End in 'F' or 'FE'
Most of the words that end in '-f' or '-fe' change to '-ve' before the plural '-s' is added. Here are some examples:
calf → calves
knife → knives
leaf → leaves
wife → wives
life → lives
loaf → loaves
Not all words ending in '-f' follow this rule, however, and words that end in '-ff' (e.g., puff or huff) usually follow the rule of regular plurals and just have an '-s' added (e.g. puffs or huffs). Additionally, some words ending in a singular '-f' simply use the regular plural rule (roof → roofs).
Words that End in 'Y'
Words that end in '-y' can be split into two types.
Words with a '-y' following a consonant (e.g., city)
Words with a '-y' following a vowel (e.g., toy)
The latter type follows the same rule for regular plurals, meaning you just need to add an '-s' to make it plural (e.g., toys).
The first type discussed are irregular plurals and follow a consistent rule: remove the '-y' and replace it with '-ies'. Let's have a look at some examples:
puppy → puppies
lorry → lorries
activity → activities
baby → babies
berry → berries
spy → spies
Words that End in 'O'
Words ending with '-o' can follow both regular and irregular plural rules, ending either in '-s' or '-es'. Unfortunately, there are no set rules to which words end with which affix, and they simply need to be learned.
Let's have a look at some irregular forms:
potato → potatoes
tomato → tomatoes
hero → heroes
echo → echoes
And some regular forms:
photo → photos
piano → pianos
logo → logos
To add to the confusion, some words ending in '-o' can be pluralized in either the regular or irregular form. Here's a list of some of the words that can take either form:
volcano → volcanos or volcanoes
tornado → tornados or tornadoes
mosquito → mosquitos or mosquitoes
buffalo → buffalos or buffaloes
Fig. 2 - The plural of volcano can be volcanos or volcanoes.
Words that End in 'UM'
For words that end with '-um' the plural form is most often created by removing the '-um' and replacing it with an '-a'. For example:
datum → data
millennium → millennia
spectrum → spectra
Some words that end in '-um' can also be pluralized by adding an '-s' to the end. For example, the word forum can be pluralized to either fora or forums (this being the more common plural form).
Words that End in 'ON'
When singular nouns ending with '-on' are pluralized, the '-on' is usually replaced with an '-a'. This can be seen in the following examples:
phenomenon → phenomena
automaton → automata
criterion → criteria
Words that End in 'IS'
Words ending with '-is' and '-es' are often easily confused (e.g., analysis and analyses), but there's a simple rule to follow to help you understand the difference/
The singular form of a word ends in '-is,' and the plural forms end in '-es.' You can see this in the following words:
crisis → crises
analysis → analyses
axis → axes
nemesis → nemeses
Words that End in 'US'
Singular nouns that end in '-us' are often pluralized by replacing the ending with an '-i.' Let's have a look at some examples:
cactus → cacti
radius → radii
alumnus → alumni
fungus → fungi
There are exceptions to this rule, and some singular nouns ending in '-us' are instead altered to end in '-era,' '-ora,' or '-es.' Here are some examples of where this occurs:
genus → genera
corpus → corpora
octopus → octopuses
Words the End in 'EX' or 'IX'
The final rule for pluralizing irregular nouns applies to words that end in either '-ex' or '-ix.' In these cases, the endings are replaced with '-ices' to create a plural. Here are some words that have these endings:
vertex → vertices
index → indices
appendix → appendices
Zero Plural Nouns
Now that we've looked at all of the rules for irregular plural nouns, let's look at nouns that have the same spelling for both their singular and plural forms - zero plural nouns.
There isn't a rule for identifying these irregular plurals; you simply need to memorize them. Don't worry, though, as many of these will be words you've come across before.
- fish
- deer
- reindeer
- species
- series
- sheep
Fig. 3 - The plural of sheep is simply sheep
Nouns that Change Completely for Pluralization
Another type of irregular plural noun is nouns that change their spelling completely from their plural forms. These changes in spellings tend not to follow any rule and also need to be memorized.
Here's a list of nouns that have different spellings in their singular and plural forms:
person - people
child - children
man - men
woman - women
mouse - mice
goose - geese
louse - lice
ox - oxen
foot - feet
tooth - teeth
penny - pence
Examples of Plurals
Now that we've gone through all of the rules for plural nouns, let's recap them all with an example for each.
| Rule | Singular Form | Plural Form |
| Regular plurals | laptop, thought | laptops, thoughts |
| Nouns ending with -S, -SS, -SH, -CH, -X, and -Z | bus, lass, galosh, witch, fox, fez | buses, lasses, galoshes, witches, foxes, fezzes |
| Nouns ending with -F or -FE | elf, wife | elves, wives |
| Nouns ending with -Y | bunny | bunnies |
| Nouns ending with -O | hero | heroes |
| Nouns ending with -UM | datum | data |
| Nouns ending with -ON | criterion | criteria |
| Nouns ending with -IS | crisis | crises |
| Nouns ending with -US | radius | radii |
| Nouns ending with -EX or -IX | vertex, appendices | vertices, appendices |
| nouns that stay the same | species, sheep | species, sheep |
| nouns that change almost completely | person, foot | people, feet |
Plurals - Key Takeaways
- Nouns go through an inflection process to show their plural form. Regular plural nouns have an -S added to the end of the word.
- Singular nouns that end in -S, -SS, -SH, -CH, -X, or -Z often need -ES added to create their corresponding plural forms.
- There are different types of irregular plural nouns, each of which follows its own rules to form plurals.
- Some irregular plural nouns are identical to their singular forms (such as sheep).
- Some irregular plural nouns don't follow a pattern and their spelling changes entirely (such as person → people and tooth → teeth).
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