Plural of the Noun

1.

+ s

car – cars, dog – dogs

2.

+ es

bus-buses, watch – watches, box – boxes, lunch – lunches

3.

f – v + es

knife - knives, thief – thieves, life – lives, shelf – shelves, wife – wives but: chief – chiefs, roof – roofs, hoof – hoofs, hooves; wharf – wharfs, wharves; scarf – scarfs, scarves

4.

y – i + es

city – cities, penny – pennies, army - armies, country – countries but: day – days, toy – toys

5.

o + es

hero – heroes, potato – potatoes

6.

man – men, woman – women, mouse – mice,

tooth – teeth, goose – geese, foot – feet,

ox – oxen, child – children

7.

compounds

• fellow-workers, school-mates, brothers-in-law (head noun takes -s)

• postman – postmen, (man – men)

• but: Germans, Russians, Normans

• forget-me-nots, merry-go-rounds (without noun)

• handfuls, spoonfuls

8.

only plural

consist of two halves: scissors, trousers, spectacles, scales, eye-glasses, tongs

end in –ing: earnings, doings, tidings, lodgings, beginnings, goings-on, etc.

goods, stairs, slums, wages, outskirts, contents, clothes, eaves

9.

only singular

information, news, business, advice, work, progress, fruit, hair, mathematics, etc.

10.

identical forms

• names of some animals: deer, sheep, swine

• some sorts of fish: fish, trout, cod, pike, salmon

• names indicating numbers(when they are preceded by a numeral): dozen, pair, couple, score;

• but: they went in pairs

• words: series, species

• pound (money) (followed a numerical indicating shillings) two pound ten (2.10)

• foot (measure of length) (followed a numerical indicating inches) five foot ten (5.10)

11

foreign plurals

memorandum - memoranda, datum - data,

phenomenon – phenomena, formula - formulae,

terminus - termini, stimulus - stimuli,

nucleus – nuclei, crisis – crises,

index - indices; axis – axes,

thesis - theses, ellipsis – ellipses

12

plural form has a new meaning

colours – 1) plural of tint, 2) flag;

customs – 1) plural of habit, 2) duties;

damages – compensation of injury;

quarters – lodgings.

13.

double plurals

brothers – sons of the mother

brethren – members of community

geniuses – men of genius

genii – spirits

pennies – number of coins

pence – amount of coins

clothes – articles of dress

cloths – kinds of cloth

indexes – tables of contents

indices – in mathematics

14.

countables become uncountables

We had duck for dinner.

The table is made of oak.

The tree was in blossom.