Grammar, # noun, Plural Noun,

Plural nouns refer to the presence of multiple individuals, creatures, locations, objects, or concepts. A plural noun means there’s more than one of something – a person, animal, place, thing, or idea.

Recognizing plural nouns is straightforward once you understand the concept. Generally, you can make a singular noun plural by adding an “s”, “es”, or “ies” to the end.

However, there are a few exceptions, such as the word “moose” which remains unchanged whether referring to one or multiple moose.

Singular to Plural

As we know, we can change a common noun from singular to plural by adding an ‘s’, ‘es’, ‘ies’, or ‘ves’. Sometimes, we may need to change the word a bit, like changing ‘us’ to ‘i’ or ‘is’ to ‘es’. There are even some common nouns that stay the same in both the singular and plural form.

Let’s look at some examples to help make this easier to understand:

Adding ‘s’:

• Dog becomes dogs
• Pen becomes pens
• Chair becomes chairs

Adding ‘es’:

• Box becomes boxes
• Tax becomes taxes
• Bus becomes buses

Adding ‘ves’ for words ending with an ‘f’ or ‘fe’:

• Wolf becomes wolves
• Calf becomes calves
• Knife becomes knives
• Wife becomes wives

Adding ‘es’ to words ending with an ‘o’:

• Mango becomes mangoes
• Potato becomes potatoes
• Tomato becomes tomatoes
• Mosquito becomes mosquitoes
• Volcano becomes volcanoes

Adding ‘ies’ to words ending with a ‘y’ preceded by a consonant:

• City becomes cities
• Strawberry becomes strawberries
• Puppy becomes puppies

Adding ‘s’ to words ending with a ‘y’ preceded by a vowel:

• Ray becomes rays
• Toy becomes toys
• Boy becomes boys

Changing ‘us’ to ‘i’:

• Alumnus becomes alumni
• Syllabus becomes syllabi
• Cactus becomes cacti
• Fungus becomes fungi
• Nucleus becomes nuclei

Changing ‘is’ to ‘es’:

• Crisis becomes crises
• Analysis becomes analyses
• Diagnosis becomes diagnoses
• Thesis becomes theses

Changing ‘on’ to ‘a’:

• Criterion becomes criteria
• Phenomenon becomes phenomena

Some common nouns stay the same in both the singular and plural form:

• News
• Scissors
• Furniture
• Deer
• Fish
• Police
• Sheep

And some are irregular nouns, meaning they change in a different way:

• Man becomes men
• Woman becomes women
• Ox becomes oxen
• Goose becomes geese
• Child becomes children
• Tooth becomes teeth
• Foot becomes feet
• Mouse becomes mice

Even words with hyphens and relationships can change to plural form:

• Mother-in-law becomes Mothers-in-law
• Father-in-law becomes Fathers-in-law
• Brother-in-law becomes Brothers-in-law
• Daughter-in-law becomes Daughters-in-law
• Son-in-law becomes Sons-in-law
• Grandmother becomes grandmothers
• Grandfather becomes grandfathers
• Grandson becomes grandsons
• Granddaughter becomes granddaughters
• Cousin becomes cousins
• Brother becomes brothers
• Sister becomes sisters
• Uncle becomes uncles
• Aunty becomes Aunties
• Aunt becomes Aunts

Irregular Plural Noun

Here are examples of singular nouns that have an irregular plural form:

• foot -> feet
• tooth -> teeth
• child -> children
• goose -> geese
• ox -> oxen
• man -> men
• woman -> women
• mouse -> mice
• fish -> fish
• deer -> deer
• police -> police
• sheep -> sheep
• furniture -> furniture
• news -> news
• scissors -> scissors
• louse -> lice
• die -> dice
• half -> halves
• knife -> knives
• medium -> media
• phenomenon -> phenomena
• species -> species
• analysis -> analyses
• wife – wives
• thief -> thieves
• life -> lives
• half -> halves
• hoof -> hooves
• leaf -> leaves
• wolf -> wolves
• sheep -> sheep
• deer -> deer
• salmon -> salmon
• trout -> trout
• datum -> data
• medium -> media
• memorandum -> memos
• index -> indices
• appendix -> appendices
• bacterium -> bacteria
• cactus -> cacti
• focus -> foci
• fungus -> fungi
• nucleus -> nuclei
• radius -> radii
• stadium -> stadia
• syllabus -> syllabi
• alumnus -> alumni
• biceps -> bicep
• calf -> calves
• elf -> elves
• leaf -> leaves
• life -> lives
• loaf -> loaves
• self -> selves
• shelf -> shelves
• thief -> thieves
• wife -> wives
• wolf -> wolves