Plural

According to the website vocabulary.com, the word plural means more than one. Well, that is the definition of plural.

Substantives in English can be classified as Countable and Uncountable.

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

• Dog – dogs
• House – houses
• Person – people

However, uncountable nouns don’t have a plural form:

• Money
• Air
• Furniture

Plural rules

Basically, we add “S” to the and of a noun.

• Table – tables
• Plane – planes
• Doctor – doctors

However, in some cases, we have to follow some rules, depending on how the noun ends.

S/SS/CH/SH/Z/O/X

1. Words ending in S/SS/CH/SH/Z/O/X get ES at the end.

• Bus – Buses
• Cross – Crosses
• Church – Churches
• Dish – Dishes
• Buzz – Buzzes
• Fox  – Foxes
• Tomato – Tomatoes

But, pay attention:

fotos, pianos, halos, vídeos, kilos, etc., are some exceptions of that rule.

F / FE

2. Words ending in F / FE get VES instead of F/FE:

• Wife – Wives
• Leaf – Leaves
• Knife – Knives

CONSOANTE + Y

3. Words ending in CONSOANT + Y get IES instead of Y:

• Country – Countries
• Baby – Babies
• Family – Families

Attention:

• Boy – Boys
• Ray – Rays

Here, the Y is not preceded by consonants, so the rule does not apply.

Irregular Plural

Some words do not follow those rules, we have to memorize them. For example:

• Mouse – Mice
• Person – People
• Child – Children
• Goose – Geese
• Foot – Feet
• Tooth – Teeth
• Man – Men
• Woman – Women
• Fish – Fish
• Deer – Deer
• Sheep – Sheep

Plural only

There is another group which singular for does not exist.

• Jeans
• Scissors
• Glasses
• Pants
• Shorts
• Pajamas
• Headphones
• News
• Gymnastics
• Economics
• Mathematics

Singular only

Another group never take any plural form:

• Luggage
• Furniture
• Information

Take a look:

Time to practice!

Download the worksheets with answers: