GRAMMAR & STRUCTURE
Plurals

Definition

Nouns can be singular (one) - for example, "one dog" -- or plural (more than one) - for example, "two dogs".

Example

Jason has one dog, and I have two cats.

Explanation

Plurals --

• have regular forms:
• Add "s" to a singular noun.
  telephones, books, songs, jobs
• Add "es" to words ending in -s, -z, -x, -ch, -sh.
  gases, watches, boxes, wishes
• Add "es" to some words that end in "o".
  tomatoes, mosquitoes, potatoes, heroes, echoes
• Change "y" to "i" and add "es" to words ending in a consonant + "y".
  fly/flies, country/countries, copy/copies, rally/rallies
• have irregular forms:
• Change some words ending in "f" to "v" and add "es".
  calf/calves, leaf/leaves, knife/knives, shelf/shelves
• Do not change some words.
  one sheep/two sheep, one deer/two deer
• Add (r)en to some words.
  child/children, ox/oxen
• Change the vowels in some words.
  foot/feet, goose/geese, tooth/teeth, man/men, woman/women, mouse/mice

Related Sections

Count & Non-Count Nouns
Determiners: Articles