What are plural nouns?

Grammar Toolkit

Plural nouns

child children

Grammar Toolkit

Plural nouns

A noun can be singular, naming just one thing, or plural,

naming more than one thing.

The way to make a noun plural usually depends on the ending of the singular noun.

Grammar Toolkit

Plural nouns

To form the plural of most nouns, add s.horse car hill rose shoe

horses cars hills roses shoes

If the noun ends in s, sh, ch or x, add es.

buses bushes churches foxes passes

bus bush church fox pass

Grammar Toolkit

Plural nouns

Form the plurals of these nouns.

circus

radio

window

bone

itch

class

year

kaleidoscope

toolbox

wish

es es

s s

s es

es es

s s

Grammar Toolkit

Plural nouns

If the noun ends in a consonant plus y, change the y to ies.

baby army spy worrybabies armies spies worries

For most nouns that end in f or fe, change f to v and add es.

leaf life half loaf leaves lives halves loaves

For a small group of nouns that end in o, add es.tomato echo hero

tomatoes echoes heroes

Grammar Toolkit

Plural nouns

Form the plurals of these nouns.body

ruby

deputy

therapy

jury

wife

wolf

knife

superhero

bodies wives

deputies knives

therapies superheroes

juries

rubies wolves

medium chateau vertebra bacteriummedia chateaux vertebrae bacteria

Grammar Toolkit

Plural nouns

English nouns that have come from other languages, such as Latin, Greek or French, often form plurals the same way they

do in their original language.

Some nouns are always plurals, whether there is one or many of them.

trousersoffspring

scissors cutlery

crockery deer

pants salmon

Grammar Toolkit

Plural nouns

Just to make it interesting, there are nouns that break the rules and

nouns that don’t follow any rule! Do you know the plurals of these nouns?

radio

woman

reef

ox

louse

axis

proof

foot

radios lice

reefs proofs

oxen feet

women axes

Grammar Toolkit

Plural nouns

• A noun is a naming word. A plural noun names more than one thing.

• Plural nouns are formed in different ways, often depending on the ending of the singular noun.

• Some nouns are both singular and plural (e.g. sheep) and some are only plural (e.g. trousers).

• In the following sentence, the plural nouns are red. The true heroes of centuries past were men and women without names.

Grammar Toolkit

Perfect tense

The End