Plural Nouns to Remember

    Today we are remembering another issue we have previously discussed, because the plural nouns are used frequently and we must keep in mind the spelling.
     Most nouns make their plurals by simply adding –s to the end (e.g. cat/cats, book/books, journey/journeys). Some do change their endings, though, the main types of noun that do this are:

1. Words ending in a consonant + "y": "y" changes to "i" and add "es".
party / parties (fiesta/s)
city / cities (ciudad/es)

2. Words ending in a vowel + "and" add an "s".
boy / boys (chico/s)
toy / toys (juguete/s)

3. Words ending in "s", "ss", "sh", "ch", "x", "or" add "is".
bus / buses (bus/es)
glass / glasses (copa/s)
brush / brushes (cepillo/s)
watch / watches (reloj/es)
box / boxes (caja/s)
tomato / tomatoes (tomate/s)
 There’s one exception to this rule. If the -ch ending is pronounced with a ‘k’ sound, you add -s rather than -es:
singular    plural
stomach    stomachs
epoch    epochs
4. Words that end in -f or -fe usually change the f sound to a v sound and add s or -es.
leaf / leaves (hoja/s)
wife / wives (esposa/s)
There are, however, exceptions: more than one dwarf = dwarfs; more than one roof = roofs


     SpellingCity gives an interesting list of words that includes many of the rules discussed above.

Fingers                                                  

     
   Many other nouns are pluralized in an irregular manner. There are two cases:
   




Foxes

  

 1. When the plural and singular do not change.
 
fish (peces o pescados)        sheep (ovejas)         




Wishes
   2. When the plural varies irregularly. There are several nouns that have irregular plural forms. Plurals formed in this way are sometimes called mutated (or mutating) plurals.



 Cities

   
    more than one child = children
    more than one woman = women
    




 Visitors

   
    
    more than one goose = geese
    more than one barracks = barracks
   






Ladies

    
    
    more than one man = men
    more than one person = people  






Classes

 more than one deer = deer
 more than one tooth = teeht





Wolves

  
more than one foot = feet
more than one goose = geese






Mice

more than one louse = lice
more than one cactus = cacti





Branches

  
  more than one appendix = appendices
  more than one ox = oxen







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