You use a singular countable noun for one person, animal or thing, and a plural for more than one. You can add -s to make many plurals, but some words change in another way. The spelling alone does not always tell you the number.
A countable noun names something you can count: one cup, two cups. Singular means one. Plural means more than one. A noun can name a person, an animal, a thing or an idea.
Use a, an, one, this or that with a singular countable noun. Use numbers such as two or six, these or those with a plural. A singular countable noun normally needs a word before it: a ticket, my ticket, the ticket. See A, an and some for choosing that word.
You can use a plural without a word before it when you talk about things in general. You can also name a particular group with the, my or another word.
An uncountable noun does not work in the same way. In its uncountable meaning, information does not become informations after a number. You can count pieces of information instead. See Countable and uncountable nouns: a bag, some luggage for full countable and uncountable patterns.
For the regular pattern, add -s to the singular noun. Keep the rest of the spelling.
| One | More than one |
|---|---|
| a lamp | three lamps |
| a ticket | six tickets |
| a room | two rooms |
Do not use an apostrophe just to make an ordinary noun plural: tickets, not ticket's. The apostrophe has a different job in the ticket's price. See Possessive 's and of: a neighbour's garden, the end of the road. Special style choices for single letters and digits, such as i's, are a separate punctuation pattern, not a rule for words such as ticket.
After the endings -s, -ss, -sh, -ch and -x in the words below, add -es. This gives you a spoken extra syllable. A syllable is a beat in a word: box has one, boxes has two.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| a bus | buses |
| a glass | glasses |
| a dish | dishes |
| a match | matches |
| a box | boxes |
Check words ending in -z. Quiz becomes quizzes: double the z, then add -es. Do not apply an add-only rule and write quizes.
Spelling and sound both matter. The ch in stomach sounds like /k/, not the sound at the end of match. Its plural is stomachs, not stomaches. A dictionary gives the spelling and sound when a short rule does not settle them.
Some words already end in -e. Add -s: face becomes faces. The spelling does not gain another e, even though you hear an extra syllable.
Its list of endings does not remove word-specific spelling exceptions such as quizzes and stomachs.
If a noun ends in a consonant letter plus y, change the y to -ies. A consonant letter here is a letter such as b, d or t, not a, e, i, o or u.
| One | More than one |
|---|---|
| a city | cities |
| a family | families |
| a party | parties |
If there is a vowel letter before y, keep the y and add -s. The vowel letters are a, e, i, o and u.
Compare city/cities with key/keys. The last letter y is the same, but the letter before it is different.
Some nouns change f or fe to -ves. Others keep the f and add -s. You need the form of the particular word, not a rule that every f must change.
| Changed ending | Ending kept |
|---|---|
| knife - knives | roof - roofs |
| leaf - leaves | belief - beliefs |
| shelf - shelves | cliff - cliffs |
| wife - wives |
The ending -o also needs a word check. Tomato and potato have tomatoes and potatoes. Photo, piano, radio and video have photos, pianos, radios and videos. Cambridge also accepts both mangoes and mangos, and both volcanoes and volcanos. Do not mark one accepted spelling wrong because the other fits a shorter rule.
The regular plural ending has three sounds. The marks between slashes show sounds, not letters. The last sound of the word helps you choose the ending's sound.
| Sound | What happens |
|---|---|
| /s/, as at the end of carrots | No extra syllable. This follows a voiceless sound, made without your throat vibrating. |
| /z/, as at the end of bags | No extra syllable. This follows a voiced sound, made with your throat vibrating, or a vowel sound. |
| /ɪz/, as at the end of boxes | An extra syllable after a hissing or similar sound, as in boxes, watches and fridges. |
The last group takes priority: the /s/ sound at the end of bus needs /ɪz/, not another plain /s/. British Council's pronunciation lesson gives all three groups. The rule concerns sound, not simply whether you see the letters es: tomatoes ends in /z/, while faces has an extra syllable.
An irregular plural does not follow the add-s pattern. Learn the singular and plural together.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| child | children |
| man | men |
| woman | women |
| tooth | teeth |
| foot | feet |
| mouse | mice |
| goose | geese |
Do not add another plural ending to these forms: children, not childrens. A possessive such as children's shoes has an apostrophe and a different job. See Possessive 's and of: a neighbour's garden, the end of the road.
The ordinary plural of person is people. Use a plural verb: people are, not people is. Persons also exists, but Cambridge and British Council place it in very formal or legal-style texts and notices. It is not wrong in every possible sentence.
There is also a different countable meaning: a people can mean a nation or cultural group. Its plural is peoples. That does not change the ordinary person/people pattern. Cambridge's dictionary lists these meanings separately.
Some countable nouns keep the same form in the singular and plural: sheep, deer and aircraft. The number word, other words in the phrase and the verb can show the difference.
Fish can also stay fish in the plural. Cambridge's dictionary also lists fishes. Do not assume that fishes is a spelling error whenever you see it.
Series and species already end in s in the singular and keep that form in the plural. A series is a set of related things, such as episodes of a programme. A species is a type of animal or plant whose members can breed with each other.
Do not remove an s to make a singular such as specie in this meaning. The singular is species, just as the plural is species.
Some words keep a plural ending from Latin or Greek. You cannot decide the plural just by adding s or by changing every final letter in the same way.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| crisis | crises |
| analysis | analyses |
| phenomenon | phenomena |
| criterion | criteria |
Some words have more than one accepted plural. Cambridge's dictionary gives both formulas and formulae. EF gives both syllabuses and syllabi. Learn the alternatives listed for that word; do not assume every word from Latin must keep a Latin ending.
A dictionary's level for a word does not give a level to every plural rule.
A compound noun uses two or more words as one name. It may be one written word, have a hyphen, or have spaces. Most compounds put the plural ending on the last part.
In mother-in-law, brother-in-law and similar family words, make the first noun plural: mothers-in-law, brothers-in-law. The ending does not go on law.
Do not add -s to every word in a compound. See Noun + noun: a bus driver, a car door, a shopping list for the noun that describes another noun, and Compound adjectives for describing phrases such as a two-day visit. In that modifier, day stays singular even though the visit lasts two days.
Trousers, jeans, shorts, pyjamas, scissors, tweezers, binoculars and sunglasses have plural forms for these items. Use a plural verb and they/them, even when you mean one item.
To count items such as these, use a pair of or pairs of. Pair is a separate countable noun: one pair is, two pairs are.
With glasses, the meaning matters. Glasses for your eyes takes this pair pattern. A glass for a drink is an ordinary countable noun: one glass, three glasses. Do not apply the eye-glasses rule to everything with the same spelling.
Clothes also takes a plural verb, but you do not count clothes with pair. Say an item of clothing or count the actual items, such as two shirts. See Countable and uncountable nouns: a bag, some luggage for ways to name units.
That record does not mean every word with an s has this grammar.
Cambridge lists other plural expressions, including belongings, earnings, goods, outskirts, surroundings, savings for money kept, and stairs for a set of steps. Use plural agreement for those meanings.
But a list of plural expressions is not a ban on a singular word in another meaning. Cambridge's dictionary gives a stair for one step and a saving for an amount you do not need to spend.
News looks like a plural but takes a singular verb. Academic subjects such as physics, economics and maths, activities such as gymnastics, and diseases such as measles also take singular agreement in those meanings.
A change of meaning can change the grammar. Statistics as a subject takes singular agreement. Statistics meaning numerical facts is plural. Cambridge's dictionary separates these two uses.
A collective noun names a group: team, audience, committee or government. The noun itself can be singular while the group contains several people.
Some group nouns can take a singular verb when you treat the group as one unit, or a plural verb when you focus on its members. Do not change team to teams just because one team has several people. Teams means more than one team.
Cambridge notes that plural verbs with these nouns are more frequent in informal situations. That is not a rule that plural agreement is possible only informally. Regional differences and nouns such as police have their own patterns; see Subject-verb agreement: finding the subject and choosing the verb for the full agreement reference.
✗We need three chair's.
✓We need three chairs.
This is an ordinary plural, not possession. Add -s without an apostrophe.
✗Two childs were playing outside.
✓Two children were playing outside.
Child has the irregular plural children, with no extra -s.
✗My trousers is wet.
✓My trousers are wet.
Trousers takes a plural verb even when you mean one item.
See Countable and uncountable nouns: a bag, some luggage for nouns such as advice and furniture, Subject-verb agreement: finding the subject and choosing the verb for choosing the verb, Possessive 's and of: a neighbour's garden, the end of the road for children's and students', and Spelling rules for verbs and plurals, and short forms for other spelling patterns.
Eight questions. Choose one answer for each.