Plural Nouns: Spelling Rules, Irregular Plurals and Examples

A plural noun means more than one: one cat, two cats. For most English nouns you simply add -s. If a noun ends in a hissing sound (s, ss, sh, ch, x or z), add -es, because it is hard to say two hissing sounds together without a vowel between them: bus, buses; church, churches.

When a noun ends in a consonant + y, change the y to i and add -es: party, parties. But if a vowel comes before the y, just add -s: toy, toys. These rules are almost the same as the he, she, it rules in the present simple, so learning one helps you with the other. For more spelling patterns, read English spelling rules.

About a dozen common nouns ending in f or fe change to -ves: knife, knives; life, lives; wife, wives; leaf, leaves; loaf, loaves; shelf, shelves; wolf, wolves; half, halves; thief, thieves; calf, calves. Other words just add -s: roof, roofs; chief, chiefs; cliff, cliffs. A few words allow both: scarfs and scarves, hoofs and hooves.

Words ending in o are mixed. A small group of everyday words add -es: potatoes, tomatoes, heroes, echoes. Most others, especially short or borrowed words, add -s: photos, pianos, kilos, zoos. Some can take either: volcanoes or volcanos, mosquitoes or mosquitos. When you are not sure, check a learner's dictionary.

Some of the most common nouns in English have irregular plurals that you simply have to learn: men, women, children, people, feet, teeth and mice. Because they are so frequent, you will use them every day.

A few nouns are the same in the singular and the plural: one sheep, ten sheep; one fish, a lot of fish; one series, two series. Words from Latin and Greek often keep their old plural, especially in academic or scientific English: analyses, criteria, phenomena.

People is the normal plural of person. Persons exists but is very formal and appears mainly in legal or official notices (This lift holds 8 persons). A different word, peoples, means nations or ethnic groups.

Some nouns are only used in the plural. Many of them are things with two equal parts: trousers (American English: pants), jeans, shorts, glasses, scissors. They take a plural verb: My jeans are new. To count them, say a pair of: two pairs of jeans. Other always-plural nouns include clothes, thanks and congratulations.

Uncountable nouns normally have no plural at all: information, advice, furniture, luggage, news, money, homework. Say some information, not some informations. News ends in s but takes a singular verb: The news is good. Learn more in countable and uncountable nouns and a few and a little.

Group nouns like police always take a plural verb (The police are here). In British English, words like team, family and government can take a singular or plural verb; American English usually uses singular.

Do not use a or an with plural nouns: a cat, but cats or some cats. Use plural nouns after numbers above one, after these and those, and after words like many, a few and several. See this, that, these and those and there is and there are.

When a number and a noun come together before another noun as a describing phrase, the noun stays singular and we usually add a hyphen: a ten-year-old boy, a five-minute walk, a two-hour film. But on their own we say: The boy is ten years old. The film is two hours long.

In speech the plural ending is small and easy to miss, so say it clearly, especially the extra syllable in words like buses and oranges. Listen for it too: it often tells you whether someone means one thing or many.

You will hear irregular plurals in many everyday phrases: a lot of people, the kids (informal for children), my feet are killing me. When you shop, you will meet plural food words like eggs, potatoes and strawberries. For more on quantities, see much, many and a lot of.