Plurals
Spanish plurals are refreshingly honest: add -s or -es, always pronounce them, and make the article agree. No silent letters, no umlauts, almost no irregulars.
The three rules
| noun ends in | add | examples |
|---|---|---|
| vowel | -s | casa → casas · coche → coches |
| consonant (or -y) | -es | ciudad → ciudades · rey → reyes |
| -z | z → ces | vez → veces · lápiz → lápices |
The article pluralizes with it: el libro → los libros, la vez → las veces, un amigo → unos amigos.
Accent housekeeping
Adding a syllable can shift the stress rules, so a written accent may appear or vanish — the spoken stress stays put:
| singular | plural |
|---|---|
| canción | canciones |
| inglés | ingleses |
| examen | exámenes |
| joven | jóvenes |
No change at all
Nouns ending in an unstressed vowel + s are identical in both numbers — only the article tells you:
el lunes → los lunes · el paraguas → los paraguas · la crisis → las crisis
(Stressed final syllable still takes -es: el autobús → los autobuses.)
Points for English speakers
- A masculine plural can mean a mixed group: los padres = the parents (father + mother), los hijos = the children, los reyes = the king and queen.
- Words that are plural in English but singular in Spanish: la gente (people) takes a singular verb — La gente dice…
- And the reverse: las vacaciones (vacation), las gafas (glasses) are normally plural.
- Adjectives pluralize too — that's their chapter, but the mechanism is this same -s / -es.
One true irregular worth knowing: el carácter → los caracteres — the stress moves. Everything else plays by the rules above.
Same chapter in: English · French · German · Italian · Georgian · Mandarin Chinese · Cantonese · Malay