How to Make Plurals

5. Singular and Plural: Many new learners make mistakes in forming the plural form of singular nouns.

Pluralisation in English can be a bit of a tricky game, and as with any language the key to mastering this aspect lies in practicing through reading and conversing until the variations that appear unpredictable in the beginning become second nature, a matter of habit. Having said that, there are certain principles that are generally applicable that make the task easier by giving us a broad idea of how common words are pluralised. Let us take a look at these.

For most nouns, add an ‘s’ at the end of the word.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Car	Cars
Desk	Desks
Tree	Trees
Ball	Balls
Hand	Hands

For nouns that end with ‘s’, ‘x’, ‘z’, ‘ch’, or ‘sh’, add ‘es’ at the end of the word.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Boss	Bosses
Box	Boxes
Topaz	Topazes
Leech	Leeches
Dish	Dishes

For some words that end with ‘o’, add ‘es’ at the end of the word.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Potato	Potatoes
Echo	Echoes
Hero	Heroes

For some words that end with ‘o’, add ‘s’ at the end of the word.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Photo	Photos
Piano	Pianos
Logo	Logos
Radio	Radios

For some words ending with ‘f’, replace the ‘f’ with a ‘v’ and add ‘es’ at the end of the word.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Thief	Thieves
Loaf	Loaves
Half	Halves
Calf	Calves
Leaf	Leaves

For some words ending with ‘f’, add an ‘s’ at the end of the word.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Reefs	Reefs
Roof	Roofs
Chef	Chefs

For some words ending with ‘ife’, replace the ‘f’ with a ‘v’ and add an ‘s’ at the end of the word.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Wife	Wives
Knife	Knives
Life	Lives

For common nouns ending with a consonant followed by ‘y’,replace the ‘y’ with an ‘i’ and add ‘es’ at the end of the word.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Nappy	Nappies
Poppy	Poppies
Fly	Flies
Penny	Pennies
Sty	Sties

Some nouns are the same in both forms.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Fish	Fish
Sheep	Sheep
Deer	Deer
Tuna	Tuna
Trout	Trout

For some nouns, other letters must be replaced or added, sometimes changing the words completely.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
Person	People
Ox	Oxen
Child	Children
Goose	Geese
Man	Men
Foot	Feet