م3/ Plural Forms of Nouns

Plural Forms of Nouns
Regular Nouns
Most nouns simply add an "s" to become plural.
• Dog-dogs, finger-fingers, car-cars
Words ending in a "ch" or "s" sound, usually add "es" to become plural.
• Box-boxes, bus-buses, church-churches
Words ending in "f" or "fe" usually change the ending to "ves" to become plural.
• Life-lives, leaf-leaves, wolf-wolves
This rule, however, has many exceptions. The plural of "safe" is "safes," because "saves" means something else. Other exceptions exist for no obvious reason.
• Roof-roofs, dwarf-dwarfs
Words that end in "o" are pluralized by adding either "s" or "es." If there is a vowel before the "o", just add an "s."
• Radio-radios, video-videos
If there is a consonant before the "s", there is no consistent rule.
• Potato-potatoes, hero-heroes
But...
• Photo-photos, memo-memos
Words ending in "y" often form plurals by changing the "y" to "i" and adding "es."
• Cry-cries, fly-flies, party-parties
People s names are an exception to most of these rules. Chuck Berry and his family would be known as the Berrys.
Irregular Nouns
Some words don t change when they become plural. This most often applies to animals.
• Moose-moose, deer-deer, fish-fish
Some words ending in "us" form plurals by changing the "us" to "i."
• Thesaurus-thesauri, syllabus-syllabi, focus-foci
Some words ending in "x" are pluralized with the ending "ices."
• Index-indices, appendix-appendices