Spelling Rules for Adding S or ES to Nouns

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Spelling Rules for Adding S or ES to Nouns

Spelling Rules for adding "S or ES" to nounsRules for making plural nouns from singular nouns

Generally, we add ‘S’ to the noun to make its plural form.

Singular

Plural

car

cars

house

houses

book

books

bird

birds

pencil

pencils

However:

1. If a noun ends in S, SH, CH, X, or Z*, then we add ‘es’ to the noun.

Singular

Plural

kiss

kisses

wish

wishes

match

matches

fox

foxes

quiz

quizzes*

  • I have a box in my bedroom.
  • I have three boxes in my bedroom.

* With words that end in ‘Z’ sometimes we add an extra ‘Z’ to make the plural form of the word. (Such as with the plural of the word 'quiz').

2. If a noun ends in a VOWEL + Y, we add ‘S’ to the noun to make its plural form.

Singular

Plural

boy

boys

holiday

holidays

key

keys

guy

guys

  •  Ali is a good boy.
  • Ali and Aslam are good boys.

3. If a noun ends in a CONSONANT + Y, we change ‘Y’ into I and add ‘es’ to the noun.

Singular

Plural

party

parties

lady

ladies

story

stories

nanny

nannies

city

cities

  •  I visited a historic city last month.
  • I have visited so many cities so far.

4. If a noun ends in ‘F’ or ‘FE’, we change ‘F’ or ‘EF’ into ‘V’ and add ‘es’ to the noun.

Singular

Plural

life

lives

leaf

leaves

thief

thieves

wife

wives

  • John has a beautiful wife.
  • Tom has three wives.

There are some exceptions: roof - roofs, cliff - cliffs, chief - chiefs, belief - beliefs, chef - chefs

 

5. If a noun ends in a CONSONANT + O, we add ‘es’ to the noun.

Singular

Plural

tomato

tomatoes

potato

potatoes

echo

echoes

hero

heroes

  • There was one hero who performed well.
  • I have never seen two heroes in one movie.

We have some exceptions like  piano/pianos, halo/halos, photo/photos

NOTE: Volcano has two correct forms of plural. Both volcanos and volcanoes are accepted.

6. There are a number of irregular nouns that don’t follow these rules. You need to memorize them because they don’t have 'S' at the end.

Singular

Plural

man

men

woman

women

child

children

foot

feet

tooth

teeth

goose

geese

mouse

mice

  • There is a child in the park.
  • There are many children in the park.

7. There are some nouns in English that are the same in the singular and the plural.

Singular

Plural

fish

fish

sheep

sheep

deer

deer

moose

moose

aircraft

aircraft

  • You can see a sheep in the field.
  • You can see ten sheep in the field.

 8. When a noun ends in ‘IS’, we change it to ‘ES’. These Words usually have a Greek root.

Singular

Plural

analysis

analyses

basis

bases

crisis

crises

  •  We will be in crisis financially.
  • We faced different political crises.

9. If a noun ends in ‘US’, we change it to ‘I’. These Words usually have a Latin root.

Singular

Plural

cactus

cacti

fungus

fungi

stimulus

stimuli

syllabus

syllabi

  • We designed a new syllabus for the upcoming year.
  • We compared so many syllabi to design a new syllabus.

Some exceptions: octopus - octopuses (because it is from Greek, not Latin), walrus - walruses

 

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