- Regular plurals pick up an s. For instance, one snob/two snobs and a dollar/two billion dollars.
- For nouns ending in s, sh, ch, and x, tack on es to form the plural unless the noun has an irregular plural. For example, kindness/kindnesses, splash/splashes, catch/catches, and hex/hexes. I tell you more about irregular plurals in a minute.
- For nouns ending in ay, ey, oy, simply add an s. Monkey becomes monkeys and boy changes to boys.
- For nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant, change the y to i and add es. Butterfly/butterflies and mystery/mysteries are two such examples.
- Hyphenated nouns become plural by changing the most important word. You can have two mothers-in-law, but no mother-in-laws, because mother is the defining characteristic.
- When making the plural of a proper name, add s or es. Don’t change any letters even if the name ends with a consonant-y combo (Smithy, perhaps). Just add s for the Smiths and the Smithys. If the name already ends in s, sh, ch, or x (Woods, for example), you can add es (Woodses).
- Irregular nouns cancel all bets: Anything goes! Sometimes the noun doesn’t change at all, so the plural and singular forms are exactly the same (fish/fish deer/deer); other times the noun does change (leaf/leaves and child/children). When you’re unsure about an irregular plural, you can check the dictionary. The definition lists the plural form for each noun.
Practice questions
At the end of each sentence is a noun in parentheses. Write the plural in the blank, as in this example:- The town eccentric, Jennifer has dyed several __________________ of her hair light green. (thatch)
- Some __________________ in the Sullivan family opt for veterinary school. (child)
Answers to practice questions
- thatches. For a noun ending in ch, add es.
- children. No s in sight, but children really is plural.