Singular and Plural

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The word singular means just one of something, for example a house or a dog.

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The word plural means more than one of something, for example houses or dogs.

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The word singular is very similar to single. This can help us remember the meanings of singular and plural.

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Most singular nouns form the plural by adding –s.

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Singular nouns ending in ‘s’, ‘x’, ‘z’, ‘ch’ or ‘sh’ form the plural by adding –es.

Try saying ‘buss’, ‘boxs’ or ‘wishs’ and you will see why nouns which end in a hissing sound use –es in the plural!

Singular nouns ending in a consonant and the letter ‘y’ form the plural by dropping the ‘y’ and adding –ies.

Singular nouns ending in a vowel and the letter ‘y’ form the plural by simply adding –s.

So, most of the time, we make a plural noun by adding an -s, -es or –ies.

-ies.

BUT

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The English language has some rule-breaking nouns in it. These are nouns that have their own special rules or spellings for making them into plurals.

Some singular nouns ending in ‘o’ form the plural by adding –s.

But some singular nouns ending in ‘o’ form the plural by adding –es!

Nouns that end in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ usually form the plural by dropping the ‘f’ and adding -ves.

However, some nouns that end in ‘f’ form the plural by simply adding -s.

Top Tip

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If you can hear the sound ‘f’ in the plural noun (for example ‘cliffs’, you probably spell the plural form with an ‘f’. If you can hear a ‘v’ sound (as in ‘wives’), then you will probably need to use a -ves plural.

Some tricky nouns are the same in the singular and the plural forms.

Pairs of things usually only have a plural form.

Foreign Words

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Many English nouns have been taken from other languages so they behave differently - the plurals are formed as they would be in the original language.

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But some nouns in this group can also use an English plural –s or –es. These nouns are shown in the following slides.

Singular Greek and Latin nouns ending in ‘a’ add an –e to form the plural.

Singular Greek and Latin nouns ending in ‘is’ change it to –es to form the plural

Singular Greek nouns ending in ‘on’ change it to –a to form the plural.

Singular Latin nouns ending in ‘ix’ or ‘ex’ use –ices to form the plural.

Singular Latin nouns ending in ‘um’ use –a to form the plural.

Most singular Latin nouns ending in ‘us’ change to –i to form the plural.

Singular French nouns ending in ‘eau’ or ‘eu’ add –x to form the plural.

Singular Italian nouns ending in ‘o’ change to -i to form the plural.

Some nouns are completely irregular and do not follow any of these patterns.

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These plurals are called mutated (or mutating) plurals.

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For example:

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woman women foot feet

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More Examples of Irregular (Mutated) Plural Nouns

Making Singular English Nouns Plural

Making Singular Foreign Nouns Plural

What is the plural form of ‘cuff’ ?

A) cuffes

B) cuff

C) cuves

D) cuffs

What is the plural form of ‘sheep’ ?

A) sheeps

B) sheepes

C) sheep

D) sheepies

What is the plural form of ‘octopus’ ?

A) octopi

B) octopusies

C) octopuses

D) octopusi

Can you find the singular and plural noun pairs?

die

dice

virtuoso

virtuosi

elf

elves

domino

dominoes

teeth

tooth

baby

babies

gateau

gateaux