Plural Nouns in English: Simple Guide with Examples

English plural nouns can seem challenging for learners. But this guide makes it easier to turn any singular (one) noun into a plural (more than one) noun.

Discover the eight rules for making nouns plural in English below. I’ve also included common examples of nouns for each rule and the different kinds of irregular plural nouns.

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How Do Plurals Work in English?

The difference between the singular and plural forms of a noun is reflected in spelling. The most basic way to make an English noun plural is by adding -s, but as you’ll see below, there are a number of spelling rules to follow to make a noun plural and also many exceptions.

Regular Plural Nouns

The majority of English nouns are regular, which means they all follow the same format for their plural forms. Here are the rules for dealing with regular nouns:

Add -s to most regular nouns

For most regular English nouns, you simply add the letter -s to the noun.

It’s easy, but remember that another form looks very similar, and that’s the possessive form: “a dog’s bowl,” which means the bowl belongs to the dog. So watch out for that. 

Here are a few common examples:

Singular form	Plural form
dog	dogs
car	cars
apple	apples
mouth	mouths
photograph	photographs
photo	photos
taco	tacos
piano	pianos
boy	boys
roof	roofs
giraffe	giraffes
lemon	lemons
canyon	canyons
salon	salons

Add -es to nouns ending in -o, -s, -x, -z, -sh or -ch

When the noun ends with -s, -x, -z, -sh or -ch, simply add -es after the noun.

Singular form	Plural form
bus	buses
box	boxes
buzz	buzzes
wish	wishes
watch	watches
clash	clashes

For most nouns ending with the letter -o, you have to add -es after the noun instead of -s.

Singular form	Plural form
potato	potatoes
tomato	tomatoes
hero	heroes
cargo	cargoes

Add -s to nouns that end with vowel + y

If a vowel comes before the letter -y, then it’s easy. You simply add -s after the noun.

Singular form	Plural form
journey	journeys
day	days
way	ways
monkey	monkeys
toy	toys
guy	guys

Change the ending to -es for nouns ending in -is

For nouns ending in -is , drop the -is and then add -es.

Let’s look at some common examples:

Singular form	Plural form
axis	axes
oasis	oases
crisis	crises

Change the ending to -ves for nouns ending in -f or -fe

For some nouns ending with -f or -fe, you change the F to V and then add -es.

Here are a few common examples:

Singular form	Plural form
elf	elves
calf	calves
leaf	leaves
knife	knives
scarf	scarves
thief	thieves
wife	wives

Change the ending to -ies for nouns ending in consonant + y

For nouns ending with a consonant + y, the general rule is to drop the -y and add -ies after the noun.

Singular form	Plural form
fairy	fairies
candy	candies
sky	skies
library	libraries
memory	memories

Change the ending to -i for nouns ending in -us

For nouns ending in -us, drop -us and add -i at the end of the word.

A few common examples are:

Singular form	Plural form
cactus	cacti
fungus	fungi
stimulus	stimuli

Change the ending to -a for certain nouns ending in -on

You probably won’t encounter this class of nouns very often, but it’s still important to know where you might need to use these words:

Singular form	Plural form
criterion	criteria
phenomenon	phenomena

Irregular Plural Nouns

If you’ve been an English learner for some time, you know there’ll always be special cases that don’t fit into any fixed formats or follow any rules. They are irregular, which means different.

Common Irregular Nouns to Memorize

They do things differently from everyone else and that’s what makes them so interesting. They don’t follow the standard rules and have to be memorized.

Let’s look at some examples:

Singular form	Plural form
child	children (not "childs")
mouse	mice (not "mouses")
man	men (not "mans")
woman	women (not "womans")
ox	oxen (not "oxes")
die	dice (not "dies")

Nouns with the same plural and singular forms

Talk about easy! There are some words that are exactly the same in their singular and plural forms.

Some common examples are below. You might notice that a lot of these words have to do with biology or animals.

Singular form	Plural form
sheep	sheep
deer	deer
fish	fish
species	species
cattle	cattle
fruit	fruit

Nouns that don’t change

Then there are some nouns that have no singular forms or no plural form. Because of this, you only have to learn the one form. 

This is especially true with what’s called mass nouns. They have no distinct plural forms. Typically, they refer to nouns that often come in groups, or nouns that are somewhat abstract. 

Singular form	Plural form
-	pants
-	scissors
-	jeans
-	shorts
livestock	-
news	-
slang	-
bravery	-
love	-
money	-

 

So now, I hope you have a clearer picture of how to make nouns plural in English.

Outside of this list, try to listen to how native speakers use these in their speech. If you don’t have natives around you, find a language exchange partner, or start watching English-language movies and TV shows. 

Or you could try a virtual immersion program like FluentU.

As you watch English language content (especially with subtitles), you’ll get more familiar with how plurals work in English by hearing them in context.

It may take some time to become familiar with the rules but that’s okay. To learn them quicker, print out a copy of these rules and keep them handy for your reference. Pretty soon, you’ll be an expert at plural spellings. Good luck!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)