Plural Nouns: What Are They and How Do You Form Them?

What’s a Plural Noun?

A noun is a part of speech that indicates a person, place, thing, or idea. While singular nouns refer to a single entity, plural nouns refer to multiples.

• Singular: dog, umbrella, car, table, pen, tree, color
• Plural: dogs, umbrellas, cars, tables, pens, trees, colors

You’ll notice that the nouns above become plural simply by adding “–s” to them. Certain nouns do not follow this standard, but instead have their own guidelines.

Below, we’ll review all the rules regarding forming plural nouns in English.

Learn How To Form Plural Nouns

As with anything in English, keep in mind that there can be several exceptions to these rules.

1. Most nouns become plural simply by adding “–s” to the end of the word.

lamp → lamps

cat → cats

hand → hands

2. Nouns ending in “–s,” “–ss,” “–x,” “–z,” “–ch” or “–sh” usually become plural by adding an “–es” to the singular form.

bus → buses

cross → crosses

fox → foxes

waltz → waltzes

church → churches

brush → brushes

3. Some words that end in “–s” or “–z” require that you double those letters before adding the “–es” to form the plural.

quiz – quizzes

4. For nouns that end in a consonant plus “–y,” change the “–y” to “–ies.”

baby → babies

city → cities

fairy → fairies

5. Nouns that end in a vowel plus “–y” become plural by adding “–s” to it.

toy → toys

boy → boys

ray → rays

6. Some nouns that end in “–fe” become plural by changing the “–fe” to “–ves.”

life → lives

wife → wives

knife → knives

7. Nouns that end in “–o” typically get “–es” added to them to form the plural.

potato → potatoes

tomato → tomatoes

8. For singular nouns that end in “–us,” the plural ending is usually changed to “–i.”

cactus → cacti

fungus → fungi

octopus → octopi

9.  If the singular form of the noun ends in “–sis”, the plural gets changed to “–ses.”

analysis → analyses

basis → bases

crisis → crises

10. Some singular nouns that end in “–on,” get these letters replaced by “–a” to become plural.

criterion → criteria

phenomenon → phenomena

11. Nouns that end in “–um” become plural by replacing “–um” with “–a.”

bacterium → bacteria

datum → data

12. Compound nouns usually form the plural by adding “–s” to the main word.

attorney-at-law → attorneys-at-law

brother-in-law → brothers-in-law

editor-in-chief → editors-in-chief

13. Some nouns remain the same whether they’re singular or plural.

aircraft → aircraft

moose → moose

sheep → sheep

14. Irregular nouns do not follow any specific rules.

child → children

foot → feet

goose → geese

man → men

mouse → mice

person → people

tooth → teeth

woman → women

Using Plural Nouns Correctly

As you can tell, there are plenty of rules you have to remember to correctly use plural nouns. There are even nouns that don’t follow any rules. For these, if you’re unsure about what is the plural form, you can check a dictionary or, better yet, use LanguageTool.

LanguageTool is an advanced writing assistant that corrects various types of errors, including incorrect proper nouns. The best part about it? It’s free to use. Give it a try!