Making nouns plural

Plurals

Troublemakers

house – houses box - boxes mouse – mice ox - oxen

hero – heroes safe - safes

banjo – banjos knife - knives

cupful – cupfuls foot - feet passerby – passersby tooth - teeth

Nouns that stay the same moose deer species sheep series swine

Weirdos

basis – bases crisis – crises criterion – criteria nucleus – nuclei stimulus – stimuli datum - data

Rule 1

Usually add s: wave – waves hat - hats S

Rule 2

If the word ends in o, usually add es: hero – heroes potato - potatoes

es

Rule 3

If the word ends in s, x, z, ch, or sh, add es: glass – glasses church – churches box – boxes bush - bushes

Rule 4

If the word ends in y and there’s a vowel before the y, add s: play – plays monkey - monkeys

Rule 5

If the word ends in y and there’s a consonant before the y, change the y to I and add es: party – parties candy - candies

Rule 6

If a proper noun ends in y, just add s: the Kennedy family – the Kennedys the Finley family – the Finleys

Rule 7

If a compound noun has a main noun in it, add the s to the main noun: one father-in-law – two fathers-in-law one chief of police – two chiefs of police

Rule 8

If a compound noun has no main noun in it, add the s at the end: one follow-up – two follow-ups one trade-in – two trade-ins

Practice

Another game uses marshmallowes and toothpicks.

He spends hours watching the gorillas and monkies.

Little daisys grow beside the stream. Eating our lunchs outdoors, we could

hear the bees. My grandfather plays dominoes on his

friends’ patios.