PLURAL NOUN
A plural noun is a word that refers to more than one of something. It’s the opposite of a singular noun, which refers to just one.
Here are some examples of plural nouns:
- Cats (plural of cat)
- Books (plural of book)
- Children (plural of child)
- Ideas (plural of idea)
- Buildings (plural of building)
As you can see, plural nouns can be formed in different ways, depending on the word itself. Some common rules include:
- Adding “-s” to most singular nouns (cat -> cats)
- Adding “-es” to nouns ending in “-s,” “-x,” “-ch,” “-sh,” or “-z” (bus -> buses)
- Changing the ending for irregular nouns (foot -> feet)
A – Ants B – Bridges C – Clouds D – Days E – Eyes F – Fears G – Gardens H – Hills I – Ideas J – Jumps K – Kisses L – Lights M – Mountains N – Noodles O – Oceans P – Pockets Q – Questions R – Raindrops S – Songs T – Touches U – Universes V – Vacations W – Waves X – Xylophones Y – Years Z – Zebras
What is an irregular plural noun?
An irregular plural noun is a noun that doesn’t follow the standard rule of forming the plural by adding “-s” or “-es.” Instead, it uses a unique spelling change or completely different word to indicate plurality.
Here are some examples of irregular plural nouns:
- Singular: Woman, child, foot, tooth, mouse
- Plural: Women, children, feet, teeth, mice
Some irregular plurals follow recognizable patterns, such as:
- Nouns ending in “-f” or “-fe” often change to “-ves”: leaf -> leaves, knife -> knives.
- Nouns ending in “-y” preceded by a consonant usually change the “y” to “i” and add “-es”: baby -> babies, city -> cities.
- Nouns ending in “-is” usually change the “is” to “-es”: crisis -> crises, analysis -> analyses.
However, many irregular plurals are completely unpredictable and need to be memorized, like “men” for “man” and “geese” for “goose.“
Here are some resources to help you learn more about irregular plural nouns:
- Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/irregular-plural-nouns/
- ThoughtCo: https://www.speechtherapystore.com/irregular-plurals-flashcards/
- Wall Street English: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanEnglishatState/photos/a.10158239950539123/10158296850214123/?type=3
I hope this explanation clarifies what irregular plural nouns are and helps you learn more about them!
Plural Noun Examples
Here are some more examples of plural nouns, including both regular and irregular ones:
Regular plural nouns:
- Adding “-s”: cats, dogs, books, tables, chairs, pencils
- Adding “-es”: boxes, watches, churches, wishes, beaches
- Other changes: men (man), teeth (tooth), mice (mouse), feet (foot), children (child)
Irregular plural nouns:
- Changing vowels: woman (women), foot (feet), goose (geese), tooth (teeth), mouse (mice)
- Adding “-en”: children (child), oxen (ox), oxen (ox)
- Adding “-ves”: knives (knife), wolves (wolf), leaves (leaf)
- No change: sheep (sheep), deer (deer), aircraft (aircraft)
- Completely different words: man (men), woman (women), child (children), foot (feet), tooth (teeth)
Other types of plural nouns:
- Collective nouns: flock (of birds), team (of players), school (of fish)
- Compound nouns: mothers-in-law, passers-by, textbooks
- Plural pronouns: we, you, they, us, them
Bonus:
- You can also have mass nouns that don’t have a singular or plural form, like water, milk, sand, happiness.
- Some nouns have two possible plural forms, with different meanings depending on the context, like media (types of communication) and medias (different sizes of a type of communication).
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions about plural nouns.