Plural Spelling Rules (-ies, -ves, -s & -es)
6. Irregular plurals
a woman/some women, a man/5 men, child/children, person/people, tooth/teeth, foot/feet, mouse/mice, penny/pennies
4. Change -y to -ies or -s
a. If the word ends in a vowel-a,e,i,o,u, + y then just add -s. boy/boys, journey/journeys, key/keys, tray/trays. b. If the word ends in a consonant + y then it changes to -ies country/countries, baby/babies, body/bodies, memory/memories
5. Adding -s or -es to words ending in O. You can either add an -s or -es to words ending in -O or sometimes they're spelled either way.
a.If a word ends in a vowel-a,e,i,o,u + -O then we sometimes add -s. radio/radios, stereo/stereos, video/videos b. If a words ends in consonant + -O then we sometimes add -s or -es. No rules for this - you just have to learn them or use a dictionary. kilo/kilos, zero/zeros, piano/pianos, photo/photos but hero/heroes, potato/potatoes, volcano/volcanoes, tomato/tomatoes.
1. Add -s to regular plurals. Adding an s is all you need to do to form a regular plural:
file/files, center/centers, girl/girls, book/books, pen/pens, computer/computers.
3. Changing to -ves or -fs. Some words ending in -f or -fe change to -ves:
knife/knives, life/lives, wife/wives, shelf/shelves *exceptions add -s - roof/roofs, proof/proofs, chief/chiefs. Words ending in -ff add -s cliffs, sniffs, scoffs, toffs stiffs, tiffs... *These words could be either -ves or -s - scarf/scarves or scarfs, dwarf/dwarves or dwarfs Click here for more info on the -ves or -fs rule and spelling test
7. No change between plural and singular. There are some words that are the same in the plural as in the singular:
sheep, series, fish*, cod, salmon, aircraft, cattle, scissors, deer, trousers fish or fishes? The plural form fish is more common. Fishes is used when talking about different types of fish. (Oxford Dictionary)
2. Adding -es to words ending in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, -z to form a plural:
wash/washes, box/boxes, match/matches, glass/glasses *There's one exception to this rule. If the -ch ending is pronounced with a 'k' then add -s (stomach/stomachs)
