Plural Forms

Plural forms play a very important role in the subject-verb agreement issues. The pluralization of English nouns is easy, but there are a lot of exceptions. You can find the common exceptions in "Plural Forms Extended" unit.

We normally add -s to most nouns to make it plural. When we can't use -s, there are a few spelling rules according to the ending of the nouns.  

What are the spelling rules?

In English, the plural nouns spelling ending is -s. However, it changes according to the pronunciation or the spelling of the plural nouns. Besides -s ending,  there are three spelling endings: -es, -ies or -ves

Nouns which end with -s, -sh, -ch, -x, -z: Take -es ending 

for example...

bus ⇒ buses

kiss ⇒ kisses

dish ⇒ dishes

brush ⇒ brushes

watch ⇒ watches

church ⇒ churches

tax ⇒ taxes 

buzz ⇒ buzzes

Nouns which end with a consonant and -y:  The last letter (-y) drops and take -ies ending

for example...

country ⇒ countries

baby ⇒ babies

Nouns which end with a -f or -fe: The last letters -f or -fe drops and take -ves ending

for example...

knife ⇒ knives

half ⇒ halves

Irregular Plural Nouns

There are some nouns that do not have any spelling rules above. They have irregular plural forms. Here are some common irregular plural forms:

Exercise

Practice Quiz