English Nouns in Plural

Plural Nouns (For the Elementary Levels)

I think that every one of us has faced repeatedly with the necessity to use one or the other noun in a plural form. And I’m almost sure that almost every one of us has been corrected a minimum of one time with the word “womаns” to” women”, and you caught yourself thinking, what a strange language English is, with a large number of exceptions and rules! So, let’s speak about the rules of the formation of the plural form of the nouns.

To make a plural noun from a singular noun, in a majority of cases, it is needed only to add an inflexion -s: cat ~ cats, table ~ tables, father ~ fathers, cupboard ~ cupboards.

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In the other cases, you should pay attention to the inflexion of the word.

If the noun has an inflexion -s, - ss, -ch, -sh, -x, -z, we add an inflexion -es to it: bus ~ buses, dress ~ dresses, dish ~ dishes, torch ~ torches, box ~ boxes, quiz ~ quizes.
If the inflexion of the noun is -f, -fe, we change these letters to -ves: life ~ lives, wolf ~ wolves (BUT!! roof ~ roofs, cliff ~ cliffs)

There are two variants of the further events if the inflexion is -y:

a) if there is a vowel before -y, we only add the inflexion -s, and don’t change anything: boy ~ boys, donkey ~ donkeys, day ~ days;
b) if there is a consonant before -у, it’s necessary to delete -у and to add -ies: lady ~ (lady + ies) ~ ladies, party ~ parties, baby ~ babies.

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A similar situation with the two possible variants happens in the cases of the formation of the plural form from the nouns, which finish in -о:

а) if there is a vowel before -о, our task is simply to add -s: zoo ~ zoos, radio ~ radios, kangaroo ~ kangaroos.
b) if there is a consonant before -о, we add -es: tomato ~ tomatoes, hero ~ heroes (BUT!! piano ~ pianos, photo ~ photos).

Here is the table and video to remember the material:

Nouns	Plural	Examples
Most nouns	add s	book, books; cup, cups; sprout, sprouts
Most nouns that end in ch, sh, s, x, or z	add es	box, boxes; bus, buses; prize, prizes
Most nouns that end in a vowel and y	add s	boy, boys; day, days; key, keys
Most nouns that end in a consonant and y	y becomes ies	baby, babies; country, countries; spy, spies
Most nouns that end in for fe	for fe becomes ves	elf, elves; loaf, loaves; thief, thieves
Most nouns that end in o	add s	kangaroo, kangaroos; piano, pianos; video, videos
Certain nouns that end in a consonant and o	add es	hero, heroes; potato, potatoes; volcano, volcanoes

When it comes to the exceptions, those may be either the nouns that are never changed in any way (Sheep ~ sheep, deer ~ deer, fish ~ fish, species ~ species), or the ones that change completely. For example:

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You can see the majority of the examples of the so-called “irregular” nouns if plural form here:

To master the knowledge, you are offered to do a few exercises from this list: