How Plurals Of Nouns Are Formed

Notice how these nouns change to form the plural: tree, trees; road, roads; horse, horses.

We see that the plural of these nouns is formed by adding s to the singular. Most plurals are formed in this way.

Church, churches; glass, glasses; pass, passes; brush, brushes; lash, lashes; box, boxes; fox, foxes; adz, adzes.

Nouns ending in ch soft, s, sh, x or z, form the plural by adding es to the singular.

My, flies; spy, spies; duty, duties; country, countries; party, parties.

Singular nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant, form the plural by changing the y to i and adding es.

Echo, echoes; hero, heroes; cargo, cargoes; portico, porticoes.

Some nouns ending in o form the plural by adding es to the singular.

Shelf, shelves; knife, knives; half, halves; thief, thieves; wife, wives.

Some nouns ending in f or fe form the plural by changing the f or fe to ves.

Man, men; goose, geese; mouse, mice; tooth, teeth; foot, feet.

Some nouns form the plural by changing the vowel or vowels of the word.

Ox, oxen; child, children; brother, brethren (of the same society).

A few nouns form the plural by adding en, with or without other changes.

Some nouns taken unchanged from foreign languages retain their plurals. A few of these nouns with their plurals are given below: genus, genera axis, axes criterion, criteria analysis, analyses crisis, crises ellipsis, ellipses

Scissors, tongs, shears, dregs, trousers, victuals, forceps. Some nouns are used only in the plural.

Deer, sheep, swine. A few nouns have the same form in the singular and plural.

The Smiths, the Browns, the two Dr. Jacksons. The plural of proper nouns is generally formed regularly.

It is proper, however, to say the Miss Browns, or the Misses Brown.

When names of substances, as fruit, spice, sugar, etc., are used in the plural, they mean different kinds of fruit, spice, sugar, etc.

Fathers-in-law, brothers-in-law are compound nouns. Compound nouns generally form the plural by adding the sign of the plural to the principal word.

Handfuls, cupfuls, pailfuls, spoonfuls. Nouns ending in ful form the plural by adding the s at the end of the word.

Dot your i's and cross your t's; in 55 there are two 5's. Letters, figures, and other signs are made plural by adding an apostrophe and the letter s.

Write sentences using different forms of the plural number.