Singular and plural nouns rules:

Most of the singular nouns are made plural by just simply adding “s” to the end. But there are many different rules regarding pluralization depending on what letter a noun ends in.

1. By simply adding “s” to the noun

Kite – kites

Light – lights

Sweet – sweets

Candle – candles

Fire cracker – fire crackers

Girl – girls

Chair – chairs

Table – tables

 

2. If a noun ends with a letter “s, ss, sh, ch, x, o or z”, add “es” to the end.

Bus – buses

Boss – bosses

Fox – foxes

Dish – dishes

Match – matches

Quiz – quizzes

Glass – glasses

Box – boxes

Beach – benches

Mango – mangoes

 

3. Noun ends with a letter “o”

There are two types:

If the noun ends in “o” and the letter before the o is a vowel, simply add “s” to make it plural.

If the noun ends in “o” and the letter before the o is a consonant, simply add “es” to make it plural.

Please have a look below table:

Vowel + o	Consonant + o
kangaroo – kangaroos	hero – heroes
video – videos	potato – potatoes
radio – radios	mango - mangoes
	tomato - tomatoes

There are some exceptions too:

Photo – photos

Auto – autos

Piano – pianos

 

4. Noun ends with a letter “y”

There are two types

If the noun ends in “y” and the letter before the y is a vowel, simply add “s” to make it plural.

If the noun ends in “y” and the letter before the y is a consonant, remove letter “y” and simply add “ies” to make it plural.

Please have a look below table:

Vowel + y	Consonant + y
boy – boys	baby – babies
tray – trays	bakery – bakeries
guy – guys	city - cities
key – keys	story - stories
day – days	country - countries

5. Noun ends with letter “f” of “fe”, remove letter f or fe and add “ves” to the end.

Wife – wives

Knife – knives

Leaf – leaves

Life – lives

 

There are some exception too:

Roof – roofs

Cliff – cliffs

Hoof – hoofs

Chef – chefs

belief – beliefs

chief – chiefs

 

6. Some irregular nouns which you have to memorize spelling:

Foot – feet

Goose – geese

Tooth – teeth

Woman – women

Man – men

Child – children

Person - people

Mouse – mice

Ox – oxen

 

7. Some nouns have the same form:

Fish – fish

Deer – deer

Series – series

Sheep – sheep

Species - species

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