Gathering of the Figments

Figment · Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 3:20 am Post subject: Noun Plurals

From: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/

Plurals of nouns can be created in the following ways:
1. Add an -s to form the plural of most words.

elephant--elephants
stereo--stereos
2. For words that end in a "hissing" sound (-s, -z, -x, -ch, -sh), add an -es to form the plural.

box--boxes
church--churches
3. If the word ends in a vowel plus -y (-ay, -ey, -iy, -oy, -uy), add an -s to the word.

tray--trays
key--keys
4. If the word ends in a consonant plus -y, change the -y into -ie and add an -s to form the plural.

enemy--enemies
baby--babies
5. For words that end in -is, change the -is to -es to make the plural form.

synopsis--synopses
thesis--theses
6. Some words that end in -f or -fe have plurals that end in -ves.

knife--knives
self--selves
7. The plurals of words ending in -o are formed by either adding -s or by adding -es. The plurals of many words can be formed either way. To determine whether a particular word ends in -s or -es (or if the word can be spelled either way), check your dictionary or the list below. There are two helpful rules:

a. All words that end in a vowel plus -o (-ao, -eo, -io, -oo, -uo) have plurals that end in just -s:
stereo--stereos
studio--studios
duo--duos
b. All musical terms ending in -o have plurals ending in just -s.

piano--pianos
cello--cellos
solo--solos
c. Plural forms of words ending in -o:

-os -oes -os or -oes
albinos
armadillos
autos
bravos
broncos
cantos
casinos
combos
gazebos
infernos
kimonos
logos
maraschinos
ponchos
sombreros
tacos
torsos
tobaccos
typos echoes
embargoes
heroes
potatoes
tomatoes
torpedoes
vetoes avocados/oes
buffaloes/os
cargoes/os
desperadoes/os
dodoes/os
dominoes/os
ghettos/oes
grottoes/os
hoboes/os
innuendoes/os
lassos/oes
mangoes/os
mosquitoes/os
mottoes/os
mulattos/oes
noes/os
palmettos/oes
peccadilloes/os
tornadoes/os
volcanoes/os
zeros/oes

8. The plurals of single capital letters, acronyms, and Arabic numerals (1,2,3,...) take an -s WITHOUT an apostrophe:

Z (the capital letter Z)--Zs
UPC (Universal Product Code)--UPCs
ATM (Automatic Teller Machine)--ATMs
GUI (Graphical User Interface)--GUIs
3 (the Arabic numeral 3)--3s

If you are unsure of how to make a noun plural, you can look up the singular form of the noun in a dictionary to get the plural form.
Source: Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary
_________________