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I’m sure you already know how to make the plural form (more than one) in English. Mostly we just add -s, right? Well, there are some spelling rules to learn and quite a few irregular plurals too so keep reading. Perhaps you’ll learn something new! And at the end, I’ll tell you one mistake you should avoid. Before we start, let's try a quick quiz. What's the plural of:
Th answers are at the end of the post. Now for the lesson. Let’s start with the basics. With most nouns, you simply add -s: cat - cats bicycle - bicycles Sometimes we have to add -es. This is to make the pronunciation easier and you should be able to hear the difference. This happens after -x, -z, -ch, -sh, -s, and -ss: box - boxes watch - watches wish - wishes bus - buses kiss - kisses waltz - waltzes Occasionally you have to double an -s or -z: quiz - quizzes And you probably know that we change -y to -ies: baby - babies city - cities But if there is a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) before the y, then we don’t change it: toy - toys key - keys day - days Even English people find this one difficult! After -o, do we add -s or -es? potato - potatoes tomato - tomatoes hero - heroes echo - echoes But: photo - photos piano - pianos kilo - kilos radio - radios And sometimes both are OK: mango - mangos / mangoes volcano - volcanos / volcanoes Often -f changes to -ves: life - lives wife - wives shelf - shelves knife - knives loaf - loaves half - halves leaf - leaves thief - thieves himself - themselves But not always: roof - roofs chef - chefs chief - chiefs belief - beliefs cliff - cliffs Words that come from Latin and Greek sometimes have irregular endings: phenomenon - phenomena criterion - criteria alumnus - alumni fungus - fungi crisis - crises analysis - analyses bacterium - bacteria appendix - appendices larva - larvae antenna - antennae But not always: octopus - octopuses virus - viruses And sometimes you can choose: hippopotamus - hippopotamuses / hippopotami cactus - cactuses / cacti Then there’s a group of nouns that stays the same. You’ll notice that quite a few of them are animals: sheep - sheep deer - deer moose - moose fish - fish (or occasionally fishes) salmon - salmon series - series species - species aircraft - aircraft dice (or die) - dice (“One die” is a bit old-fashioned nowadays.) And finally, there are words that change in unpredictable ways: person - people child - children man - men woman - women tooth - teeth foot - feet goose - geese mouse - mice ox - oxen penny - pence (or pennies. We say “pence” when saying the price, so 50p is "fifty pence". We say “pennies” for the coins, like “a jar of pennies”.) English does some strange things to words which we borrow from other languages, especially Italian. In Italian, a “panino” is a kind of sandwich and “panini” is the plural form. Italians say “un panino” and “due panini” but English people say “one panini” and “two paninis”, which must make the Italians laugh at us! If you go to an Italian cafe in the UK and ask for “a panino”, an Italian waiter will be impressed but an English waiter will probably be confused! It’s also normal in the UK to ask for “two capuccinos” or “two zucchinis”. There is one mistake which you should try to avoid and this is something even English people get wrong. We don’t use the apostrophe with plurals: two carrots ✔️ two carrot’s ❌ This is sometimes called the greengrocer’s apostrophe because it is sometimes seen at the greengrocer’s shop or market stall. Quiz answers:
Did you get them all right? If you would like to know how to improve your vocabulary and how to remember new words, you might like my e-book: 
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