Many English nouns have irregular plural forms. While the general rule says that adding -s or -es to a noun forms its plural, this is not always true. The following examples show some of the ways English nouns become plural.
For some nouns, like fish, there is no difference between the singular form and the plural form. Sometimes, however, people do use regular plural endings for irregular nouns, so in casual conversation you may hear fishes or elks.
One fish; three fish
A deer; many deer
An elk; some elk
One species; several species
A series; many series
Some English words come from Latin, and take a Latinate plural ending.
A syllabus; all of the syllabi
A larva; many larvae
This genus; these genera
Her thesis; their theses
One crisis; two crises
An index; a couple of indices
A matrix; two matrices
Sometimes nouns end in -f or -fe and the f becomes a v before adding -s or -es.
A loaf of bread; a few loaves of bread
One wolf; a pack of wolves
A knife; some knives
Some plurals have no pattern and have to be memorized.
Some nouns do not have plural forms because they cannot be counted. These are called noncount nouns, or mass nouns. Some common noncount nouns are water, rice, sand, butter, mud, rain, advice, homework, progress, and music.
Some plurals have no pattern and have to be memorized. That person; those people. One child; three children. One mouse; two mice. A goose; several geese.
Although irregular nouns do not follow the pluralization rules of regular nouns, some irregular plural forms follow certain patterns. For example, nouns that end in -f / -fe, change to ending in -ves in their plural forms. The table below shows some such examples.
Normally, the plural of “fish” is the same as the singular: “fish.” It's one of a group of irregular plural nouns in English that are identical to the corresponding singular nouns (e.g., “moose,” “sheep”).
The plural of “moose” is the same as the singular: “moose.” It's one of a group of plural nouns in English that are identical to the corresponding singular nouns. So it's wrong to write “mooses.” For example, you might write “There are several moose in the forest.”
Some nouns do not change at all when they become irregular plural nouns. Nouns like rice, deer, sheep, or moose look exactly the same whether they are in their singular or plural form. Therefore, writers have to use other context clues in their sentences to communicate which form is being used.
The example nouns are man, child, foot, tooth, mouse, and person. These are regular nouns where we just add the S to make them plural. The example nouns are zoo, radio, stereo, video, and kangaroo. This chart exists to be able to compare it with the next chart about nouns ending in a consonant + O.
An irregular plural noun is a type of noun that doesn't abide by the same rules as most other nouns. Unlike regular plurals, irregular plurals don't become pluralized when -s or -es is added to the end. An example of an irregular plural is 'wolves', which is the plural of 'wolf'.
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