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Week 1 - GC

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Plural Nouns

There are many plural noun rules, and because we use nouns so frequently when writing,
it’s important to know all of them! The correct spelling of plurals usually depends on what
letter the singular noun ends in.

There are two types of nouns, which are Regular and Irregular noun. Irregular nouns do not
follow plural noun rules, so they must be memorized or looked up in the dictionary.

Regular Nouns

1. Most singular nouns form the plural by adding -s.


Examples
Singular Plural
boat boats
house houses
cat cats
river rivers

2. A singular noun ending in s, x, z, ch, sh makes the plural by adding-es.


Examples
Singular Plural
bus buses
wish wishes
pitch pitches
box boxes

3. A singular noun ending in a consonant and the letter y, we make it plural by dropping
the y and adding-IES.
Examples
Singular Plural
penny pennies
spy spies
baby babies
city cities
daisy daisies

4. If the singular noun ends in a vowel and the letter y, we make it plural by simply
adding an -S.
Examples
Singular Plural
Day Days
Key Keys
Boy Boys

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5. If the noun ends with -f or -fe, the f is often changed to -ve before adding the -s to
form the plural version.
Examples
Singular Plural
Life Lives
Wife Wives
Wolf Wolves
Leaf Leaves

But there is an exception to rule number 5:


Exceptions:
roof – roofs
belief – beliefs
chef – chefs
chief – chiefs

6. If the singular noun ends in a consonant and the letter -O, add -ES to make it plural.
Examples
Singular Plural
Potato Potatoes
Tomato tomatoes
mosquito mosquitoes

But there is an exception to rule number 6:


Exceptions:
piano-pianos
solo-solos
alto-altos
photo-photos

7. If the singular noun ends in a vowel and the letter -O, add -S to make it plural.

Examples
Singular Plural
studio studios
radio radios
stereo stereos

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Irregular Nouns
Unfortunately, these nouns don’t have a rule, you’ll just have to learn them.
Look at the list below:

Examples
Singular Plural
woman women
man men
child children
tooth teeth
foot feet
person people
mouse mice
goose geese
Sheep Sheep
Deer Deer
Jeans Jeans
Glasses Glasses
Pants Pants
Hair Hair
News News
Series Series
cactus cacti
focus foci
fungus fungi
nucleus nuclei
syllabus syllabi/syllabuses
analysis analyses
diagnosis diagnoses
oasis oases
thesis theses
crisis crises
phenomenon phenomena
criterion criteria
datum data

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