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Beware of Scary Plural Forms

There are many nouns in the English language. For most of them, all you need to do is add an -s to make one become many. Sadly, there are exceptions. This should help you figure them out

Normal words

Most normal words get an s at the back when converted to plural, like socks. Words that end in -s, -sh, -ch, or -x get an -es at the end, like bushes and boxes. Words that end with -y have their y become an -ies.

f-words (no, not that one…)

Words that end with an -f in singular form are one exception. Take a look at the word leaf. Here, the plural form isn't leafs, it's actually leaves. Yeah, that -f turned into a -ves. And even if the word ends with -fe, the -f still becomes a -v. Why? I have no idea, but that how it is.

o-words

O is a cool letter. But anyway, when dealing with words that end in o, it's easy to get mixed up. Some of them get an -s, likes photos and logos, while other ones get an -es like echoes and heroes. Now that's crazy!

Random, crazy words

Just take a look at this chart:

Singular	Plural
Child	Children
Man	Men
Woman	Women
Foot	Feet
Tooth	Teeth
Die	Dice
Mouse	Mice

These are words whose plural form seems to me like a totally random thing. Some guy probably just said, "Hmm, mouse… let's make everyone fail their English tests and call more than one mouse mice, not mouses or anything that would make any sense!". There are more of these, and you have to watch out for them.

Some of the plural rules are odd

Words that end with a -us, like radius, become -i, like radii, or nucleus and nuclei. Words that end in -ium become an -ia, like medium and media. Words that end in -is become -es, like basis and bases. Words that end in -ion have that turn into -ia, like criterion and criteria. Got all that?

Some words don't even change at all

Words like sheep, fish, series, and species are the same in both singular and plural form. So no, there's no such thing as sheeps.

Help! What can I do to remember all these???

The simple answer is: practice, practice, and then practice some more. Like building up your vocabulary or working on your math, practice is the only thing that will help you perfect your pluralizing (wow, I didn't even know that's a word) skills. Read, write, and don't be afraid to ask for help.

For example, I got a lot of help from Joanna Crump's English Grammar Webpage for an incredible list of words and their plural forms, which you can find right here.

Good luck with your plural forms!

Image Credit : petehindle

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