Plurals
One rule covers almost everything: add -s. The real work is a handful of spelling adjustments, three pronunciations, a short list of irregulars you must simply know — and the trap of nouns that refuse to be plural at all.
The regular plural: -s / -es
| pattern | example | rule |
|---|---|---|
| most nouns | cat → cats, book → books | add -s |
| ends in s, ss, sh, ch, x, z | bus → buses, watch → watches, box → boxes | add -es |
| consonant + y | city → cities, baby → babies | y → ies |
| vowel + y | day → days, key → keys | just -s |
| some in -f / -fe | knife → knives, leaf → leaves, wife → wives | f → ves (but roofs, chiefs, beliefs) |
| some in -o | potato → potatoes, tomato → tomatoes | -es (but photos, pianos, kilos) |
Pronunciation — same three sounds as the verb -s:
| after | sound | examples |
|---|---|---|
| voiceless sound | /s/ | cats, books |
| voiced sound or vowel | /z/ | dogs, days |
| s-like sound (s, z, sh, ch, dʒ) | /ɪz/ | buses, watches, pages |
The irregulars you can't avoid
| singular | plural | singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| man | men | foot | feet | |
| woman | women /ˈwɪmɪn/ | tooth | teeth | |
| child | children | mouse | mice | |
| person | people | goose | geese |
- Zero plural: sheep, fish, deer, aircraft, series, species — two sheep, three fish.
- Learned Latin/Greek plurals: criterion → criteria, phenomenon → phenomena, analysis → analyses. (Data and media now usually behave as singulars in everyday use.)
Uncountables: the big trap
These nouns are always singular, never take a/an, never take -s — even though their translations are happily plural in French, Spanish, Italian and German:
| they say | English |
|---|---|
| des informations / Informationen | some information — a piece of information |
| des conseils / consejos | some advice — a piece of advice |
| des meubles / Möbel | furniture — a piece of furniture |
| des nouvelles | news — and it's singular: The news is good. |
| des bagages / equipajes | luggage / baggage — a bag, a suitcase |
Also uncountable: work, money, bread, traffic, research, progress, homework, hair (on your head — a hair is one strand).
✗ informations · ✗ advices · ✗ an information · ✗ The news are good.
Agreement quirks
- Pair nouns are plural-only: trousers, jeans, scissors, glasses — My jeans are new. A pair of jeans.
- Group nouns (team, family, government, police): British English often uses a plural verb (The team are playing well), American English keeps it singular (The team is playing well). Police is plural everywhere: The police are here.
- Chinese speakers note: the plural is obligatory whenever there's more than one — three book is always wrong, even after a number: three books.
Same chapter in: French · Spanish · German · Italian · Georgian · Mandarin Chinese · Cantonese · Malay