Rules in Forming the Plural of Nouns

 RULES IN FORMING PLURAL OF NOUNS 

A plural noun is a word that indicates that there is more than one person, animal place, thing, or idea. When you talk about more than one of anything, you're using plural nouns.

While many just need 's' added to the end, some do change their endings. Here's a quick guide to figuring it out.

1. Add ‘s’ to form the plural of most nouns.

Examples:
dog-dogs
cat-cats

2. Add ‘es’ to nouns that end in s, ss, x, ch, and sh.

Examples:
bus-busses
truss – trusses
tax – taxes
torch-torches
bush-bushes

3. For nouns that end in ‘y’ with a consonant before the y, change the y to an i and add ies.

Examples:
city – cities
puppy – puppies

4. For nouns that end in y with a vowel before the y, just add s.

Examples:
ray – rays
boy – boys

5. For nouns that end in f or fe, remove the f or fe and add ves.

Examples:
wife – wives
wolf – wolves

Except for the following:
Exceptions:
roof – roofs
chef – chefs
belief – beliefs

6. For nouns that end with an o, add es.

Examples:
potato – potatoes
tomato – tomatoes

Exceptions:
photo – photos
piano – pianos
halo – halos

7. Some nouns are irregular and they change spelling to form plural.

Examples:
child – children
mouse – mice
foot – feet
goose – geese
tooth – teeth
man – men
woman – women

8. Some nouns have the same form for singular and plural.

Examples:
sheep – sheep
deer –deer
series – series
species – species